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THE rOEMS OE VTTir.'TL

TRANSLATED INTo J.M.J.ISII PHOSK.

3ALLANTVNE, HANSON AND < f>.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

TllK

POEMS OF A^IEGTL

TllANHLATEU ISTU ENGLISH PliOUE

T?Y

JOHN CONINGTON, I\LA.

LATE CORPUS PROKESSOK OK LATIN IN llli; IN I VEItSlTV OK OiKOlUJ

M:\\' EDI

LOXDOX
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST 16"' STREET
1S90

AJl r/'s/i/s reserved

PiiOFESSOR Conington's prose translation of Virgil has
not been published hitherto in a separate form, and is
now reprinted verbatim from his Miscellaneous Writ-
infTs. It should be added that the translation had been
finished some time before his death, but had not been
revised for publication.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

I

The Bucolics * •

The Georgics • • 33

The ^NEiD ^°^

THE UUCOLICS.

IXLOGUE I.

TITYRUS.

M. You, Tityrus, as you lie under tlie covert of tlic spread-
ing beech, are studying the woodland Muse on your slender
reed, while we are leaving our country's borders and the fields
of our love — we are exiles from our country, while you, Tityrus,
at ease in the shade, are teaching the woods to resound the
charms of Amaryllis,

T. 0 !Meliboeus, it is a god who has given us the peace you
see — for a god he shall ever be to me ; his altar shall often be
wet with the blood of a tender lamb from our folds. lie it is
that has made my oxen free to wander at large, and myself to
play at my pleasure on my rural pipe.

M. I do not grudge you, I. It is rather that I wonder, so
great is the unsettledness in the whole country round. Look
at me here ! I am driving my goats feebly on before me ; and
here is one, Tityrus, which I can but just drag along. Why,
it was here among these thick hazels only just now that she
dropped twins, after hard labour — the last hope of my flock —
alas ! on the bare flint. Ah ! often and often, I mind, this
mischief was foretold me, had I but had sense, by the lightning

%^

2 THE BUCOLICS.

striking the oak. However, do kindly tell me, Tityrus, who
this god of yours is.

T. That city which they call Rome I thought, Meliboeus,
was like this of ours, where we shepherds are in the habit of
weaning and driving our young Iambs. It was so that I had
observed puppies to be like dogs, and kids like their dams ; so,
jn short, that I used to compare big things to little. Eut I
found her carrying lier head as high among all other cities as
cypresses do among your bending hedgeroAV trees.

M. And what was the mighty reason of your visiting
Rome 1

T. Freedom, which cast an eye on me in my laziness, late
as it was, after my beard was beginning to look grey as it fell
under the barber's shears. However, it did cast an eye on
mo, and came, though it was long first, after Amaryllis got
the hold she has of me, and Galatea took leave of me. For,
to tell the trutli, while I was under Galatea I never looked
forward to freedom nor attended to my pelf ; though I had
many a sheep for sacrifice going out of my folds, and many a
rich cream-cheese made for the thankless town, yet my hand
used never to come home with a load of money in it.

M. Aye, Amaryllis, I used to wonder why you were calling
on the gods so piteously — for Avhom it was that you were
letting the apples hang on their trees. It was Tityrus that
was away. Why, Tityrus, the pines, and the springs, and the
vineyards here, used all to call for you as loudly as she did.

T. How could I help it 1 I had no other way of quitting
slavery, and no other place where I could find gods so ready
to help me. Here it was, Meliboeus, that I saw tliat youth
for whoui I make my altars smoke twelve days a year. Here
it was that I got from him my first gracious answer to my
suit, * Go on, swains, feeding your oxen as before, and breed-
uig your bulls.'

ECLOGUE I. 17-77. 3

M. Happy old man ! so your land will remain your own,
and enough, too, for your Avants, though there may 1)6 bare
flints all over it, and the marsh covering the pastures with
slime and reeds. Still, no strange fodder will trouble your
breeding ewes — no baleful contagion from a neighbour's flock
will harm them. Happy old man ! licre you will lie among
the streams you know so well, and the sacred springs, court-
ing the coolness of the shade — from here, on the border of
your neighbour's land, that hedge, whose willow-blossoms are
browsed by Ilybla's bees, shall often tempt you to sleep, as it
has ever done, with its light Avhispering — from here, under the
high rock's shelter, the dresser shall sing out into the air —
while the hoarse wood-pigeons, those favourites of yours, and
the turtle will still go on complaining from the skiey elm-top.

T. Yes ; sooner shall the stags become buoyant and pasture
in the sky, and the seas leave their flsh bare on the shore —
sooner shall the Parthian and German wander over each other's
frontiers, one to drink the Arar in his exile, the other the Tigris
— than that gracious look of his shall fade from my mind.

M. Meanwhile we are leaving our home ; some going among
the thirsty Africans, while others Avill reach Scythia, and
Crete's swift Oaxes, and Britain, cut off utterly from the whole
ATorld. Tell me, will there ever be a day when I shall gaze
wonderingly, after long years, on my native fields, and the turf-
hcaped roof of my homely cottage, surveying my old domains,
then, perhaps, a few cars of corn ? Is a lawless soldier to be
master of lands that I have broken up and tilled so well — a
barbarian, of such crops as these 1 See to what a point civil
discord has brought a Avretched country ! See for whom it is
that we have sown our fields ! Aye, Melibceus, go on grafting
your pears and setting your vines in rows ! Away, my goats,
away — you that were once so happy ! No more shall I see
you, as I lie in some green cavern, in the distance hanging

4 THE BUCOLICS.

from a briery crag — no more verses for me to sing — no more
flowering lucerne and bitter willow leaves for you to crop, my
goats, with me to tend you !

T. This night, at all events, you might rest here with me
on a couch of green leaves. We have ripe apples, mealy
chestnuts, and milk-cheeses in good store ; and now the farm-
house tops are smoking in the distance, and the shadows are
falling larger from the mountain heights.

ECLOGUE IT.

ALEXIS.

Corydon, the shepherd, was burning for the lovely Alexis,
his master's darling, with no prospect for his hope. All he
could do was to come daily among the thick beeches, with
their shady summits, and there all alone to pour out wildly to
tlie mountains and woods such unstudied strains as these in
unavailing passion :

' Cruel Alexis ! have you no care for my songs ? no pity for
me? You will drive me to death at last. It is the hour
when even cattle are seeking the shade and its coolness — the
hour when even green lizards are sheltering themselves in the
brakes, and Thestylis is making for the reapers, as they come
back spent with the vehement heat, her savoury mess of
bruised garlic and wild thyme ; but I, as I am scanning the
prints of your feet, am left with a choir of hoarse cicalas that
make the plantations ring again under the blazing sun, "Was
there not satisfaction in bearing Amaryllis's storms of passion
and her scornful humours 1 or Mcnalcas, again — dark as he was
. — fair as are you ? Do not, loveliest boy, do not presume too
much on that bright bloom — white privet is left to fall, dark
hyacinths are gathered for posies.

ECLOGUE I. n—U. so- 5

* You think scorn of me, Alexis, witlioiit even asking what
I am — how rich I am in cattle, how overflowing in milk
white as snow. "Why, I have a thousand ewe lambs straying
at large over the mountains of Sicily — new milk never fails
me either summer or winter, I can sing as Amphion of Dirce
sang when calling the flocks home on the Attic Aracynthus.
I am not so unsightly either — the other day on the seashore I
looked at myself, as the sea was standing all glassy in a calm.
I should not fear competing witli Daphnis in your judgment,
if the reflection never plays false.

' 0 if you would but take a fancy to live with me a homely
country life in a humble cottage, shooting the deer, and driv-
ing the herds of kids a-field to the green mallows ! Living
with me, you shall soon rival Pan in singing in the wood-
land. Pan it was that first taught the fashion of fastening
several reeds together Avith wax. Pan it is that cares for
sheep and shepherds. Do not think you woidd be sorry to
chafe your lip with a reed — to learn this same lesson, what
used not Amyntas to go through ? I have a pipe made out of
seven uneven hemlock stalks, which Damoetas once gave me
as a present — his dying words were, "It is yours now, as my
next heir." So said Damoetas. Amyntas, in his folly, felt
jealous. Besides, I have two young roes, Avhich I found in
a dangerous valley, their skins still sprinkled with Avhite,
sucking the same ewe twice a day. I am keeping them for
you. Thestylis, to be sure, has been long begging to get them
away from me — and so she shall, as you think my presents so
mean. Come to me, loveliest boy — see, the nymphs are
bringing basketsful of lilies, all for you — for you, the fair
naiad plucks yellow violets and poppy heads, and puts them
with the narcissus and the fragrant fennel flower, twines
them with casia and other pleasant plants, and picks out the
delicate hyacinth with the yellow marigold ! I will gather

6 THE BUCOLICS.

you myself quinces with their soft white down, and chestnuts,
whicli my Amaryllis used to love so, and put in waxen plums
— this fruit, too, shall come in for honour. You, too, I will
pluck, ye bays, and you, myrtle, that always go with them —
so placed you make a union of sweet smells.

' Corydon, you are nothing but a clown. Alexis cares
nothing for such presents ; nay, if presents are to be your
weapons, lollas will not yield the day to you. Alas, alas !
what wretched wish have I been forming? I have been
madman enough to let the south wind into my flower-beds,
and the boars into my clear springs. Do you know whom
you are flying from, infatuate as you are? Why, even the
gods have lived in the country, aye, and Dardan Paris.
Leave Pallas to live by herself in the great city towns she has
built ; let us love the country beyond any other place. The
grim lioness goes after the wolf, the wolf, for his part, after
the goat, the playful goat after the flowering lucerne, Corydon
after you, Alexis — each is drawn by his peculiar pleasure.
Look, the bullocks are drawing home the plough, with its
share slung up, and the sun, as he withdraws, is doubling the
lengthening shadows — yet still love is burning me up — for
how should there be any stint for love? Ah, Corydon,
Corydon ! what madness has possessed you ? Here are your
vines half-pruned, and the elms they hang on overgrown with
leaves. Come, you had better set about plaiting out some
work for needful occasions with twigs or pliant rushes. You
Avill find another Alexis, thougli the present one may scora
you.'

ECLOGUE II. SI- 1 1 1. 27. 7

ECLOGUE III.

PALiEMON.

M. Tell me, Damoetas, whose cattle 1 Meliboeus's ?

D. No ; but iEgon's. They were just now handed over to
nie by iEgon.

M. Poor creatures, always unlucky ! He is courting N'ecera,

aU afraid that she will be preferring me to him, while his

hireling performs a shepherd's duty by milking the sheep twice

an hour, and so the cattle are robbed of their life juice, and

the lambs of their milk.

# * * *

M, Aye, of course, when they saw me with my felon-knife
notching j\I icon's plantations of young vines.

D. Or rather, we will say, by the old beeches here, when
you broke Dajihnis's bow and arrows, Avhich you were vexed
about at the time — you, with your crooked ways — when you
saw the boy get his present, and afterwards, if you had not
found some way of spiting him, you would have died.

M. What are masters likely to do, if knaves venture so far ?
Did not I see you, you scoundrel, snapping up stealthily
Damon's goat, while his mongrel was barking furiously ? And
then, Avhen I was calling out, '"Where's he off to now 1 Tityrus,
muster your flock ! ' you skulked behind the sedge.

D. AVhy, after a fair beating in singing, was he not to pay
me the goat which my pipe had earned for me by its songs ?
If you must know, that goat was mine, and Damon owned it
to me himself, but said he would not pay.

M. You beat him in singing ? "Why, had you ever a pipe
jointed with wax ? Used you not to perform at the crossings,
executing vile, miserable songs, like an uneducated dolt, as
vou are, on a screaking straw 1

8 THE BUCOLICS.

D. Well, what Jo you say to our trying together what each
is made of, turn and turn about 1 This heifer — don't back
out of it — she comes twice a day to the milk-pail and suckles
a couple of calves — shall be my stake. Do you name what
wager you will go in upon.

M. AYhy, out of my flock I dare not stake anything with
you. The fact is, I have a father at home, aye, and I have a
harsh step-mother ; both count the flock twice a day, and one
of tliem the kids too. But I Avill make what you -will yourself
own to be a greater A^enture, as you are minded to play so mad
a game. I will stake a pair of cups of beechwood, the em-
bossed Avork of the divine Alcimedon ; the plastic graving-tool
has wreathed them round with a limber vine, entwined with
spreading clusters of pale-yellow ivy. In the field there are
two figures, Conon and — who was the other, who marked out
with his rod the whole heavens for mankind, that they might
know the seasons which the reaper and the stooping plough-
man Avere to have for their owni 1 I have not yet put my lips
to them either, but keep them in store.

D. Yes. I have two cups, too, made for me by the same
Alcimedon, who has clasped their handles with pliant acanthus,
and drawn Orpheus on the field and the woods going after him.
I have not yet put my lips to them either, but keep them in
store. However, if you once look to the heifer, you will have
nothing to say for the cups.

M. You are not going to run away this time. I will meet
you Avherever you appoint — only let there be some one to hear
us. Palfemon — don't you see him coming up? — will do. I
will take care that you challenge nobody to sing for the future.

D. Nay, come on, if you can ; there will be no hinderance
on my side. I don't run away from anybody — only, neigh-
bour Palaemon, give your best attention to this : it is no
trifling matter.

ECLOGUE III. 28-78. 9

P. Sing, then, now tliat -we are seated on the soft grass. It
is the time when every field and eVery tree is yielding its fruit ;
the time when the woods are in leaf, and the year is at its love-
liest. Begin, Damoetas ; you follow him, Menalcas. You
shall sing by turns ; singing by turns is what the Muses
love.

D. Jove shall be our first word, Muses. Jove is the filler
of all things : he makes the earth fruitful, and he has a
thought for verses like mine.

M. I am Phoebus's favourite. Phoebus always finds with
me his own peculiar presents, the bay and the sweet ruddy
hyacinth,

D. Galatea flings an apple at me, like a saucy girl, as she
is, and then runs off to the willows, and would like to be
seen first.

31. But I have my darling Amyntas, putting himself in my
way unasked, so that my dogs have got to know him now as
well as Delia.

D. I have got a present ready for my goddess. I have
marked the spot with my own eyes where the wood-pigeons
have been building up in the sky.

31. I have done my best for to-day ; ten golden apples,
picked from a tree in the orchard, I have sent my boy ; to-
morrow I will send as many more.

D. O the times Galatea has talked to me and the tinners she

O

has said ! Carry some of them, ye winds, to the ears of the
gods !

M. What gi)od is it that at heart you do not scorn me,
Amyntas, if while you are following the boars, I am always
watching the nets ?

D. Send me Phyllis : it is my birthday, lollas. '\Mien I
sacrifice a heifer for the harvest, come yourself.

M. Phyllis is my own dearest love. "Why, she wept on

lo THE BUCOLICS.

parting from me, and dwelt long on the words, ' Farewell,
farewell, my lovely lollas ! '

D. The bane of the folds is the wolf, of the ripe crops the rain,
of the trees the sirocco — mine is Amaryllis's storms of passion.

M. The joy of the young corn is moisture, of weaned kids
the arbute, of breeding cattle tlie limber willow — mine is none
but Amyntas.

D. Pollio loves my muse — country-bred though she be.
Pierian goddesses, breed a heifer for your gentle reader.

M. Pollio writes fresh verses himself. Breed a bull old
enough to butt with the horn and spurn the sand with the
hoof.

D. The man that loves you, Pollio, let him arrive where he
is glad to see you ; for him let honey distil, and let the prickly
thorn-bush bear spices.

M. The man that hates not Bavius, let him love your
verses, Maevius; let him, moreover, plough with a team of
foxes, and milk he-goats.

D. You who gather flowers and strawberries that grow on
the ground, there is a cold snake — off with you, my boys ! — •
lurking in this grass.

M. Don't go on venturing too far, my sheep ; the bank is
not to be trusted. Why, the ram himself is just now drying
his coat.

D. Tityrus, sling away those goats that are grazing there
from the river. I'll wash them all myself in due time at the
spring.

M. Get your sheep into the shade, my boys ; if tlie heat
steal a march on the milk, as it did the other day, it will be
in vain that Ave shall tug at the udders.

D. Dear, dear, how lean my bull is among those fattening
tares ! it is the same love that wastes the cattle and the
cattle's master.

ECLOGUE III. 78— /F. 14. II

M. These of mine certainly Lave not less the matter with
them either— the flesh scarcely covers the bones ; it must be
some one's evil eye that bewitches such young lambs as mine
are.

D. Tell me in what country— and you shall be my grand
_4pollo — the horizon is no broader than three ells across.

M. Tell me in Avhat country flowers grow with the names
of kings written on them, and have riiyllis all to yourself.

P. I am not the man to settle a difference like this between
you. You deserve the heifer, and so does he ; and every one
who shall either mistrust love's sweets or taste its bitters as
you have done. Shut off the water now, my boys; the
meadows have had enough to drink.

ECLOGUE IV.

POLLIO.

Muses of Sicily, let us strike a somewhat louder chord. It
is not for all that plantations have charms, or groundling
tamarisks. If we are to sing of the woodland, let the wood-
land rise to a consul's dignity.

The last era of the song of Cumse has come at length ; the
grand file of the ages is being bom anew ; at length the virgin
is returning, returning too the reign of Saturn ; at length a
new generation is descending from heaven on high. Do but
thou smile thy pure smile on the birth of the boy who shall
at last bring the race of iron to an end, and bid the golden
race spring up all the world over — thou, Lucina — thine own
Apollo is at length on his throne. In thy consulship it is — in
thine, PoUio — that this glorious time shall come on, and the
mighty months begin their march. Under thy conduct, any
remaining trace of our national guilt shall become void, and

12 THE BUCOLICS.

release the world from the thraldom of perpetual fear. He
shall have the life of the gods conferred on him, and shall see
gods and heroes mixing together, and shall himself be seen of
them, and with his father's virtues shall govern a world at
peace.

For thee, sweet hoy, the earth of her own unforced will
shall pour forth a child's first presents — gadding ivy and fox-
glove everywhere, and Egyptian bean blending with the bright
smiling acanthus. Of themselves, the goats shall carry home
udders distended with milk ; nor shall the herds fear huge
lions in the way. Of itself, thy grassy cradle shall pour out
flowers to caress thee. Death to the serpent, and to the
treacherous plant of poisoned juice. Assyrian spices shall
spring up by the wayside.

But soon as thou shalt be of an age to read at length of the
glories of heroes and thy father's deeds, and to acquaint thy-
self with the nature of manly worth, the yelloAV of the waving
corn shall steal gradually' over the plain, and from briers, that
know nought of culture, grapes shall hang in purple clusters,
' and the stubborn heart of oak shall exude dews of honey.
Still, under all this show, some few traces shall remain of the
sin and guile of old — such as may prompt men to defy the
ocean goddess with their ships, to build towns with walls
round them, to cleave furrows in the soil of earth. A second
Tiphys shall there be in those days — a second Argo to convey
the flower of chivalry ; a second war of heroes, too, shall there
be, and a second time shall Achilles be sent in his greatness to
Troy.

Afterwards, Avhen ripe years have at length made thee man,
even the peaceful sailor shall leave the sea, nor shall the good
ship of pine exchange merchandise — all lands shall produce all
things; the ground shall not feel the harrow, nor the vine-
yard the pruning-hook ; tlie sturdy ploughman, too, shall at

ECLOGUE IV. 14— r. 3, 13

length set his bullocks free from the yoke ; nor shall wool be
taught to counterfeit varied hues, but of himself, as he feeds
in the meadows, the ram shall transform his fleece, now into
a lovely purple dye, now into saffron-yellow — of its own will,
scarlet sliall clotlie the lambs as they graze. Ages like these, 1
flow on ! — so cried to their spindles the Fates, uttering iu
concert the fixed will of destiny.

Assume thine august dignities — the time is at length at
hand — thou best-loved offspring of tlie gods, august scion of
Jove ! Look upon the world as it totters beneath the mass of "
its overhanging dome — earth and the expanse of sea and the
deep of heaven — look how all are rejoicing in the age that is
to be ! 0 may my life's last days last long enough and breath
be granted me enough to tell of thy deeds ! I will bo o'er-
matched in song by none — not by Orpheus of Thrace, nor by
Linus, though tliat were backed by his mother, and this by
his father — Orpheus by Calliope, Linus by Apollo in his
beauty. AVere Pan himself, with Arcady looking on, to enter
the lists with me, Pan liimself, with Arcady looking on, should
own himself vanquished.

Login, sweet child, with a smile, to take notice of thy
mother — that mother has had ton months of tedious sickness
and loathing. Begin, sweet child — the babe on whom never
parent smiled, never grow to deserve the table of a god or the
bed of a croddess !

o^

ECLOGUE V.

DAPHNIS.

Me. "Wliy not sit down together, Mopsus, as we happen to
have met, both good in our way — you at filling slender reeds
with your breath, I at singing songs— here among this clump
of elms and hazels ?

14 THE BUCOLICS.

Mo. You are my elder ; you liave a right to give me the
word, Menalcas, whether we should retire under those flicker-
ing shades M'hich the zephyrs keep agitating, or rather into
the cave. See how the cave is covered by the wild vine's
straggling tendrils.

Me. In these hills of ours you have no rival but Amyntas.

Mo. What if he were to rival Phoebus, too, for the prize of
singing ?

Me. You go on first, Mopsus. If you happen to have any
song about Phyllis's flame, or Alcon's glories, or Codrus's
quarrels, go on. Tityrus will look after the kids while grazing.

Mo. I would rather try my hand at some verses which I
wrote out the other day on the green beechen bark, and set
them to music, with marks for the flute and voice. When I
have done, put on my rival, Amyntas.

Me. As far as the limber willow is below the yellow-green
olive, or the groundling Celtic nard below the bright red rose-
beds, so far in my judgment does Amyntas rank lower than you.

Mo. Well, my boy, say no more ; we are getting into
the cave.

Over Daphnis, cut off" by so cruel a fate, the nymphs were
weeping ; hazels and rivers, you heard the nymphs, when his
n] other, clasping her son's piteous corpse, is crying out on the
cruelty of the gods and the stars, as only a mother can.
Xone were there in tliose dreary days, Daphnis, to feed the
oxen, and drive them down to the cool streams ; no beast was
there tliat tasted the river, or touched the blades of grass.
Daphnis, thy death drew groans even from the lions of
Carthage, so say the echoes of those wild mountains and
forests. Daphnis, too, it was that set the fashion of harness-
ing the tigers of Armenia to the car; Daphnis, that showed
how to bring on comi^anies of Bacchanals, and twine quiver-
ing spear-shafts with soft foliage. As the vine is the glory of

ECLOGUE V. 4-59. 15

the trees it clasps, as the grapes of tlie vine, as the bull of
the herd, as the standing com of the fruitful field, thou and
thou alone art the glory of those who love thee. Since the
Fates have swept her off, Pales has taken Jier leave of the
country, aye, and Apollo his. Often now-a-days, in the very
furrows to whose care we give our largest barley grains, we
see growing ungenerous darnel and unfruitful oats. In place
of the delicate violet and the dazzling bright narcissus springs
up the thistle, and the thorn with its sharp spikes. Sow the
turf with flowers, embower the springs in shade, ye shei>
herds ! It is Daphnis' charge that this should be done for
him ; and raise a tomb, and to the tomb append a verse,
' Here lie I, Daphnis, the woodlander, whose name is known
from here to the stars ; a lovely flock I had to keep, but I
was more lovely than the}".'

Me. Sweet is your strain to my cars, licavenly poet, as is
sleep to tired limbs on the grass, as is the quenching of thirst
in mid-day heat in the stream where sweet waters play. It is
not only in piping, but in singing that you match your
teacher. Happy shepherd boy ! now you will be his fitting
successor. Still, however, I will sing you in turn, as I best
may, a strain here of my own, and will exalt your Dajilinis
to heaven. Yes, Daphnis I Avill carry up to heaven. I, too,
was beloved by Daphnis.

Mo. As if there were anything I should value more than a
boon like this. Tliat glorious boy was a theme worthy of
any one's song, and Stimicou ere now has dwelt to me witli
rapture on those strains of yours.

Me. Dazzling in beauty himself, Daphnis is now marvel-
ling at the strange splendour of heaven's threshold as he
crosses it, and looking down on the clouds and stars under
his feet, whereat a wild and eager rapture is taking hold of
the woods and the rest of rustic life, seizing on Pan and the

i6 THE BUCOLICS.

slioplierJs, and the Dryad maids. Ko more does the wolf
plan surprises for the cattle or the snares for the deer, for
they know that the gracious Daphnis loves all to be at
peace. The very mountains in their unshorn strength are
flinging the sound exultingly to the sky. The very rocks,
the plantations, too, are already taking up the song, ' We
have a new god, a new god, Menalcas ! ' Be gracious and
propitious to thy worshippers ! See, here are four altars — •
two, see, for thee, Daphnis ; two of a larger build for
Phoebus ; two cups, with now milk, foaming over the brim
each year, and two bowls will I set up for thee of rich olive
/oil ; and, above all, cheering the feast with abundance of the
' wine-god's juice before the fire, if it be winter ; if harvest-
time, in the shade, I will pour out into goblets the fresh
nectar of Ariusian wine. I will have songs sung by Damoetas
and ^gon of Lycta ; the dances of the Satyrs shall be imita-
ted by Alphesiboeus. Such honours shall be thine for ever,
l)oth when we pay our yearly vows to the nymphs, and when
we have our lustral survey of the country. So long as the
wild boar shall love the mountain ridges, and the fish the
running stream ; so long as thyme shall be the food of the bee,
and dew of the grasshopper, so long shall thy honour, and
thy name, and thy glory for ever remain. Like Bacchus and
Ceres, thou shalt have vows paid thee yearly by the country-
men. Thou, like them, shalt make thy worshippers thy
debtors.

Mo. What present, what shall I give you for a song like
this ? Why, the whisper of the rising south is not so charming
to my ear, nor the beating of the waves on the shore, nor the
streams that run down among the rocky glens.

Me. Here is my present to you first — this frail reed ; it was
this from which I learnt ' Corydon was burning for the lovely
Alexis,' and that other lesson, ' Whose cattle, Meliboeus ? '

ECLOGUE V. 59— F/. 20. 17

3fo. But you must accept this sheep-liook, wliicl), in spite
of his frequent begginc^, Antigenes never got from me — and
there was much to love in him, too, in those days — a liandsomo
one, with regular knots and brass about it, Menalcas.

ECLOGUE Vr.

VARUS.

First of all, my muse deigned to disport herself in the strains
of pastoral Syracuse, and disdained not to make her home in
the woods, goddess as she was. When I was venturing to
sing of kings and battles, the CjTithian god touched my car,
and appealed to my memory. ' It is a shepherd's part, Tityrus,
tliat the sheep that he feeds should be fat, and the songs that
he sings thin.' So now I — for there will be enough and to
spare, whose desire it will be to sing thy praises. Varus, and
make battles their tragic theme — will choose the woodland
muse for my study, and the slender reed for my instrument.
It is not for me to sing strains unbidden. Still, if there slioidd
be any, any to read even a lowly lay like this with fond regard,
thou. Varus, shouldst be the song of these tamarisks of mine—
the song of the whole forestry — for Phoebus knows no more
welcome page than that which bears on its front the name of
Varus.

Proceed, Pierian maids. Young Cliromis and !Mnasylos
saw old Silenus lying asleep in a cave, his veins swollen, as is
his constant wont, by the wine-god, his friend of yesterday.
There were the garlands a short way off, lying just as they
dropped from his head, and his heavy jug was hanging by its
battered handle. They commence the attack (for the old god
had often balked both of a promised song), and put him in
fetters made out of his own garlands. A companion comes up

i8 THE BUCOLICS.

to reassure their faltering, ^gle, iEgle, fairest of tlie Naiails,
and as he begins to open liis eyes, paints his forehead and his
temples blood-red with mulberry juice. He, with a laugh at
the stratagem, exclaims, ' What do you want with binding me?
Untie me, boys ; be content with the credit of having me iu
your power. The song you want is at your service.' With
that he begins. This was the signal for fauns and wild beasts
■ — you might see them — frolicking iu measured dance, and
stately unbending oaks nodding their tops to and fro ; and as
for the mountains, the rock of Parnassus is never so enraptured
with Phoebus, nor are Khodope and Ismarus so entranced by
Orpheus.

For he began to sing how through the mighty void had been
brought together the elements of earth and air and sea and
streaming lire all at once ; how from them as their origin all
things had a beginning, and the new-born orb of the universe
grew into shape. Next, the soil began to harden, and leave
Nereus to be shut up in the sea, and by degrees to assume the
forms of things, so that at length the earth is surprised to see
a new sun break into light above it, and the rain has a longer-
fall as the clouds are drawn up higher, just as the woods first
begin to rise from the ground, and living things wander thinly
over mountains that never saw them before.

From this he comes to tell of the stones that Pyrrha threAV
behind her, the golden reign of Saturn, and the birds of Cau-
casus, and the theft of Prometheus. With this he couples the
tale, how Hylas was left behind at the spring, and his ship-
mates called for him till the shore rang Avith Hylas ! Hylas !
from end to end. Turning next to her who would have been
happy indeed had cattle never been created, Pasiphae, he
soothes her with her passion for the snow-white bull. Unhappy
girl ! how came such frenzy to take hold of thes ? Proetus'
daughters once filled the pastures with their counterfeited low-

ECLOGUE VI. 20-77. 19

ings, yet none of tliem ever fell to such disgrace, often as she
shrank from the thought of the yoke on her neck, and felt for
horns on lier smooth woman's brow. Unhappy girl ! yes, thou
art wandering over the hills, wliile he, with that snowy side
pillowed on soft hyacinths, is chewing the yellow green grass
under the dark holm oak, or going after some licifer in the
Iiopulous herd. Close, ye nymplis, ye nymphs of Dicte, haste
and close the glades of the forest, if by any chance my eyes
may fall on the bull's truant footsteps ; perhaps he may have
Ijecn attracted by a patch of green herbage, or may have gone
after tho herd, and some of the cows may bring him home to
the stalls of Gortyna.

Then he sings of the maiden who stopped to admire the
ftl)ples of the Hesperides ; next he clothes the sisters of Phac-
Ihon with a mossy bark of bitter taste, and bids them rise
from the ground as tall alders. Next he sings how, as Gallus
was wandering by the waters of Permessus, one of the sisters
took him up to the Aonian hills, and how the whole clioir of
Phoebus stood up to receive their noble visitant ; how Linus,
shepherd and heavenly poet in one, his locks wreathed witli
flowers and bitter parsley leaves, bespoke him thus : — ' These
reeds the Muses present to thee, here they are. The same
which they gave the old bard of Ascra before thee. The same
with which he, as he sang to them, used to bring stately un-
bending ashes down from the mountain-sida With these do
tiiou tell the story of the planting of the Grynean forest, and
tell it so that there may be no grove on which Apollo prides
himself more.'

What need to repeat how he told of Scylla, Nisus' daughter,
her to whom the story clings, that, with a girdle of howling
monsters round her beauteous form, she made havoc of the
Dulichian vessels, and in the depths of the eddying waters
gave the poor trembling sailors to be torn limb from limb by

20 - THE BUCOLICS.

tlie dogs of the sea ; or how he told of Tereus' transformed
shape, of the food and the present which Philomela got ready
for him, of the strange speed with which she made for the
desert, and of the wings on which the unhappy queen hovered
over the palace once her own ?

All the themes, in short, to wliich, as once sung by Phoebus,
Eurotas listened in ecstasy, and bade his bays get them by
heart, Silenus sings : the valleys feel the shock of song and
pass it on to the stars, till Vesper gave the word to fold the
flocks and report the number, and began his unwelcome march
over Olympus.

ECLOGUE VIL

MELIBCEUS.

Daphnis happened just to liave seated himself under a
holm oak that gave tongue to the wind, and Corydon and
Thyrsis had driven their flocks to the same spot — Thyrsis'
sbeep, Corydon's goats swelling with milk — both in the bloom
of life, Arcadians both, ready to sing first or second in a match.
Just then, as I was busy sheltering some myrtles from the cold,
my he-goat, the lord and master of the herd, had strayed to
where they were, and I catch sight of Daphnis. As soon as
he meets my eye — ' Quick,' he says, * come here, Meliboeus, your
goat and kids are all safe, and if you can aff"ord to be idle a
little, rest under the shade. "VVliere we are, your bullocks
will come over the meadows of themselves to drink ; here is
Mincius fringing his green banks with a border of soft waving
reeds, and there is a swarm humming from Jupiter's favourite
oak.' What was I to do ? On the one hand I had no Alcippe
or Phyllis, to shut up my new-weaned lambs at home, and the
match coming off, Corydon against Thyrsis, was sure to be
great. However, I let their play take precedence of my work

ECLOGUE VI. 77— VII. 41;. 21

So in alternate songs they began to compete. Alternate songs
were what the Muses within them chose to recall. Tliese were
repeated by Corydon, those by Thyrsis in regular order.

C. Kymphs of Libethra, my heart's delight, either vouchsafe
nie a strain such as you gave my Codrus — the songs he makes
come next to Phoebus' own — or, if such power is not for all
of us, see, my tuneful pipe shall be hung up here on your
consecrated pine.

T. Shepherds, deck your rising poet with a crown of ivy ;
ye of Arcadia, that Codrus' sides may burst with envy ; or
should he try the power of extravagant praise, bind foxglove
on my brows, that the ill tongue may do no harm to the bard
that is to be.

C. This for thee, Delia, the head of a bristly boar, from
young Micon, and the branchy horns of a long-lived stag.
Should such luck be secured to him by right, thou slialt bo
set up full length in polished marble, with purple buskins
tied round thy legs.

2\ A bowl of milk and these cakes, Priapus, are enough for
thee to look for year by year ; the orchard thou guardest is
but a poor one, so we have had to make thee marble with our
])resent means ; but if this year's births fill up our herds, then
be of gold.

C. Galatea, child of Xereus, sweeter to me than Hybla's
thyme, whiter than the swan, more delicate than the palest
ivy, soon as the bullocks return home from pasture to their
stalls, if thou hast any regard for thy Corydon, come, 0 come !

T. Nay, rather think me bitterer than Sardinian herbage,
rougher than gorse, more worthless than the weed that rots on
the shore, if I do not find this day longer already than a Avholo
year. Home Avith you from your pasture ; for shame, home
with you, lazy bullocks !

C. Mossy springs, and grass more downy-soft than sleep,

22 THE BUCOLICS.

and the arbute that embowers you greenly with its straf,'gHng
shade, keep the solstice heat from my flock ; already summer
is coming on in its fierceness, already buds are swelling on the
vine's luxuriant tendrils.

T. Here we have a good hearth, and pinewood with plenty
of pitch, and a large fire always blazing, and the posts of our
door black with continual soot ; here as we sit we care for
north winds and cold weather about as much as the wolf for
the size of the flock, or torrents for their banks.

C. Here stand junipers and prickly chestnuts — there lie
the fruits of summer scattered each under its parent tree —
just now all nature is smiling ; but if our lovely Alexis were
to go away from these hills of ours, you would see even the
rivers dried up.

T. The country is parched up ; the grass is dying for thirst
from the sickly air ; the wine-god grudges the hills the shade
of the vine they love ; but when my own Phyllis arrives, all
the woodland shall be green again, and Jupiter shall come
down plenteously in fertilising showers.

C. The poplar is the favourite of Alcides, the vine of
Bacchus, the myrtle of Venus, beauty's queen, the bay of
Phoebus : Phyllis' passion is for tlie hazel — while Phyllis'
passion lasts, the myrtle shall not take rank above the hazel,
nor yet the bay of Phoebus.

T. The ash is the fairest in the woods, the pine in the
gardens, the poplar on the river banks, the fir on the mountain
heights ; but if thou, Lycidas, beauty's king, shouldst visit
me often and often, the ash would soon bow to thee in the
woods, the pine in the gardens.

M. So much I remember, and how Thyrsis failed in the
match. From that day forward it is all Corydon, Corydon
with us.

ECLOGUE VII. ^6— VIII. 26. 2^

IXLOGUE VI I r.

niARMACEUTRIA.

The pastoral miisc that inspired Damon and Alphesiboeus,
at whose contention tlie heifer stood wonderincr and forgot to
f^'raze, whose strains held lynxes spell-hound, and made rivers
suffer change, and arrest their flow — the Muse that inspired
Damon and Alphesiboeus shall he our song.

Lut thou, whether my heart is with thee as thou art sur-
mounting the rocks uf mighty Timavus or coasting the shore
of the Illyrian sea, will that day ever come that will find me
f!ce to tell of thy deeds ? Shall I ever he free to publish the
whole world through those strains of thine, alone worthy of
►Sophocles' tragic march ? From thee is my beginning, for
thee shall be the end. Accept these strains commenced at
thy bidding, and suffer this ivy to wind itself round thy brows
among thy triumphal bays.

Scarce had night's cold shade parted from the sky, just at
the time that the dew on the tender grass is sweetest to the
cattle, when leaning on his smooth olive wand Damon thus
began : —

Rise, Lucifer, and usher in the day, the genial day, whiio
I, deluded by a bridegroom's unworthy passion for my Nisa,
make my complaint, and turning myself to the gods, little as
their witness has stood me in stead, address them nevertheless,
a dying man, at this very last hour. Take up with me, my
pipe, the song of Maenalus.

^Isenalus it is whose forests are ever tuneful, and his pines
ever vocal ; he is ever listening to the loves of shepherds, and
to Pan, the first who would not have the reeds left unem-
ployed. Take up with me, my pipe, the song of Ma?nalus.

]\Iopsus has Nisa given him : what may not we lovera

24 THE BUCOLICS.

expect to see ? Matches will be made by this between griffins
and horses, and in the age to come hounds will accompany
timid does to their draught. Mopsus, cut fresh brands for
to-night ; it is to you they are bringing home a wife. Fling
about nuts as a bridegroom should ; it is for you that Hesperus
is leaving his rest on CEta. Take up witli me, my pipe, the
song of Msenalus.

0 worthy mate of a worthy lord ! There as you look down
on all the world, and are disgusted at my pipe and my goats,
and my shaggy brow, and this beard that I let grow, and do
not believe that any god cares aught for the things of men.
Take up with me, my pipe, the song of Maenalus.

It was in our enclosure I saw you gathering apples witli
the dew on them. I myself showed you the way, in company
with my mother — my twelfth year had just bidden me enter
on it. I could just reach from the ground to the boughs that
snapped so easily. What a sight ! what ruin to me ! what a
fatal frenzy swept me away ! Take up with me, my pipe, the
song of Msenalus.

Now know I what love is ; it is among savage rocks that
he is produced by Tmarus, or Rhodope, or the Garamantes at
earth's end ; no child of lineage or blood like ours. Take up
with me, my pipe, the song of j\[tenalus.

Love, the cruel one, taught the mother to embrue her
hands in her children's blood ; hard too was thy heart, mother.
Was the mother's heart harder, or tlje boy god's malice more
wanton ? Wanton was the boy god's malice ; hard too thy
heart, mother. Take up Avith me, my pipe, the song of
^Isenalus.

Aye, now let the wolf even run away from the sheep ; let
golden apples grow out of the tough heart of oak ; let narcissus
blossom on the alder ; let the tamarisk's bark sw^eat rich drops
of amber; livalry let there be between swans and screech-owls;

ECLOGUE VIII. 26-84. 25

let Tityrus become Orplieus — Orpheus in the woodland, Arion
among the dolphins. Take up with mo, my pipe, the song of
!Maenalu3.

Nay, let all be changed to the deep sea. Farewell, ye
woods ! Headlong from the airy mountain's watchtower I
will jilunge into the waves ; let this come to her as the last
gift of the dying. Cease, my pipe, cease at length the song
of Ma^nalus.

Thus far Damon ; for tlie reply of Alphesiboeus, do ye recite
it, Pierian maids ; it is not for all of us to have command of all.

Bring out water and bind the altars here with a soft woollen
liUet, and burn twigs full of sap and male frankincense, that I
may try the effect of magic rites in turning my husband's
mind from its soberness ; there is nothing but charms wanting
hera Lriiig me home from the town, my charms, bring mo
luy Daphnis.

Charms have power even to draw the moon down from
heaven ; by charms Circe transformed the companions of
Ulysses ; the cold snake as he lies in the fields is burst
asunder by chanting charms. Ihing me home from the town,
my charms, bring me my Daphnis.

These three threads distinct with three colours I wind round
thee first, and thrice draw the image round the altar thus ;
lieaven delights in an uneven nuiuVjer. Twine in three knots,
Amaryllis, the three coloui-s ; twine them, Amaryllis, do, and
say, ' I am twining the bonds of Love.' Bring me home from
the town, my charms, bring me my Daphnis.

Just as this clay is hardened, and this wax melted, by one
and the same fire, so may my love act doubly on Daphnis.
Crumble the salt cake, and kindle the crackling bay leaves
with bitumen. Daphnis, the wretch, is setting me on fire ;
I am setting this bay on fire about Daphnis. Bring me home
from the town, my charms, bring me my Daphnis.

26 THE BUCOLICS.

May such be Daplinis' passion, like a Iieifer's, when, weary
of looking for her mate through groves and tall forests, she
throws herself down by a stream of water on the green sedge,
all undone, and forgets to rise and make way for the fargone
night— may such be his enthralling passion, nor let me have
a mind to relieve it. Bring me liome from the town, my
charms, bring me my Daphnis.

These cast-off relics that faithless one left me days ago,
precious pledges for himself, them I now entrust to thee,
Earth, burying them even on the threshold ; they are bound
as pledges to give me back Dayihnis. Bring me home horn
the town, my charms, bring me my Daphnis.

These plants and these poisons culled from Pontus I had
from Moeris' own hand. They grow in plenty at Pontus. By
the strength of these often I have seen Moeiis turn to a wolf
and plunge into the forest, often call up spirits from the
bottom of the tomb, and remove standing crops from one field
to another. Bring me home from the town, my charms, bring
me my Daphnis.

Carry the embers out of doors, Amaryllis, and fling them
into the running stream over your head ; and do not look
behind you. Tliis shall be my device against Daphnis. As
for gods or charms, he cares for none of them. Bring me
home from the town, my cliarms, bring me my Daphnis.

Look, look ! the flickering flame has caught the altar of its
own accord, shot up from the embers, before I have had time
to take them up, all of themselves. Good luck, I trust !
. . . Yes, there is something, I am sure . . . and Hylax is
barking at the gate. Can I trust myself ? or is it that lovers
make their own dreams ? Stop, he is coming from town ;
etop now, charms, my Daphnis !

ECLOGUE VI 11. 8s— IX. 24. 27

ECLOGUE IX.

MCERIS.

L. Wliitlior away on foot, Moeris; following the road to
the town?

M. O Lycidas ! we have been kept on alive, to hear a
stranger . . . what our fears never looked for . . . now,
owner of our little farm, say to us, ' I am master here ; you
old tenants, take yourselves away; 'and so now, beaten and
cowed, since Fortune's wheel is on the roll everywhere, we
are carrying him these kid.-j, with a mischief to him.

L. A\'hy, surely I had heard that all the land from where
the hills begin to draw themselves up from the plain, and
then let down the ridge with a gentle slope, on to the
water, and those old beeches with tlu-ir batterud ti)ps, your
Menalcas had succeeded in saving by his songs.

M. Aye, so you had, and so the story went ; but our songs,
1 can tell you, Lycidas, have as much power in the clatter of
weapons of war as the doves of Chaonia, they say, have wlien
the ea'de is comiuL'. So if I had not been warned before
hand anyhow to cut this new quarrel short by the raven on
the left from the hollow holm oak, you would not have seen
your servant !^toris here, nor Menalcas himself alive.

L. Alas ! could any one be guilty of such a crime 1 alas !
Avere we so nearly losing all the comfort you give us, along
with yourself, ^Menalcas ? Who would there be to sing of the
nyniphs ? "Who to sow the turf with flowers and herbage,
and embower the springs in green shade ? Or wlio would
give us songs like that I caught slily from you the other day
when you were making your way to that darling Amaryllis of
ours 1 — ' Tityrus, whilst I come back — it will not be long —
feed my goats for me ; and w lien fed drive them to water.

28 THE BUCOLICS.

Tityrus, and in driving them don't come across tlic lic-goat —
he has a trick of butting, beware.'

M. Or this, you might have said, tlie song he was making
fur Varus and had not finished :— ' Varus, thy name— only
let Mantua be spared us ; Mantua, too near a neighbour, alas !
to ill-starred Cremona— our swans in their songs shall carry
aloft to the stars.'

L. If you would have your swarms fail to light on the
yews of Corsica, and your heifers swell their udders with milk
from browsing on lucerne, begin with anything you have in
vour mind. I, too, have been made a poet by the ]\Iuses, and
liave verses, too, of my own. I am called a bard myself by
the shepherds, but I have no mind to trust them ; for as yet
I cannot think my singing worthy of Varius or of Cinna ; no,
it is the mere cackling of a goose among the melody of swans.
M. That is what I am trying to do, turning over in my
mind, Lycidas, while you have been speaking, in the hope of
being able to recollect ; for it is no vulgar song. * Hither to
me, Galatea ! why, what sport can there be in the water ? Here
are the glorious hues of spring, liere is the ground pouring
forth flowers of all dyes on the river-bank, here is the fair
Avhite poplar stooping over the cave, and the limber vines
Aveaving a bower of shelter. Hither to me, and let the mad
waves beat the shore as they please.'

L. What of the song I heard you singing that clear night
all alone ? I remember the tune if I could but get the words.
M. ' Daphnis, why that upturned look at the old constella-
tions rising? See, the star of Csesar, Dione's darling, has
be"-un its march — a star to make the corn-fields glad with pro-
duce, and the colour deepen on the grape in the sunny hills.
Graft your pears, Daphnis, and spare not ; the fruit you gro^^
will be gathered by the next generation.' Everything goes
with time, the brain among the rest. ISIany were the long

ECLOGUE IX. 24— X. 8. 29

summer days, I remember, I used to send to their grave witlx
singing as a boy, and now all my store of songs is forgotten.
Nay, Moeris' voice is taking leave of liini too ; ■wolves have
set eyes on Moeris first. ]5ut wliat you want you can hear
repeated often enough by Mcnalcas.

L. All your put-offs only make my longing greater. Besides,
just now tlie sea is all laid and hushed to hear you, and every
Ijreath of murmuring wind, as you may see, has fallen dead.
Here we are just half-way, for the tomb of Bianor is becoming
visible ; here, where the husbandmen are lopping those thick
leaves ; here, !Mo(jiis, let us stop and sing ; here put your kids
down ; we shall get to the town for all that ; or, if we are
afraid that night will get up a shower first, there is nothing
to hinder our singing — it makes the journey hurt less — as wo
go right on. So now, that we may sing as we go, I will
relieve you of this load of yours.

M. I'ress me no more, my boy ; let us think only of wliat
is before us ; the songs we shall have a better voice for when
we see him with us again.

ECLOGUE X.

GALLUS.

This my last effort, Arethusa, do thou vouchsafe me. A
song for my Gallus, brief, yet such as may win even Lycoris'
ear, I have to sing — who would refuse a song to Gallus ? If,
as thou glidest under the Sicilian billows, thou wouldest not
have the salt goddess of Ocean mingle her waters with thine,
begin the lay ; let its theme be Gallus' vexing passion, while
the silly flat-nosed goats are browsing on the growing brakes.
Our songs are not to deaf ears : every note is echoed by the
woods.

30 THE BUCOLICS.

AVhat forests, what lawns were your abode, virgin nymphs
of the fountains, when Gallus was wasting under an unworthy
passion ? Wliat indeed ? for it was not any spot in the ridges
of Parnassus or of Pindus that kept you there ; no, nor Aonian
Aganippe. Yet over him even the bays, even the tamarisks
shed tlieir tears ; over him as he lay under the lonely rock
even the pine-crowned head of Msenalus shed a tear, and the
dull stones of cold Lycoeus. There, too, standing about him
are his sheep ; they are not ashamed of humanity, nor do thou
be ashamed of thy flock, heavenly poet as thou art ; even
Adonis in his beauty once fed sheep by the water. Up came
the shepherd too : slowly up came the swineherds ; dripping
from the winter's mast up came Meualcas, Every mouth cries,
Whence this passion of thine 1 Up came Apollo — Gallus,
says he, why be a madman? thy heart's queen, Lycoris, has
braved the snow and the savage life of camps to follow
another. Up, too, came Silvanus with his woodland honours
green on his brow, nodding his fennels in bloom and his giant
lilies. Pan came, Arcadia's own god ; him we saw Avith our own
eyes, crimsoned all over Avith blood-red elderberries and ver-
milion. Is there ever to be an end of this ? he cries. As for
Love, such things move him not. Tears will no more sate
Love's cruelty than sluices will your grass, or lucerne j'-our
bees, or fodder your goats. His answer came with a sigh —
You will sing of me though, Arcadians, when I am gone, in
the ears of your mountains ; none know how to sing but Arca-
dians. 0 how soft a sleep would my bones enjoy, could I but
feel that a pi])e of yours one day would tell of my passion !
Kay, indeed, would tliat I had been one of you myself — the
shepherd of a flock of yours, or the dresser of those full ripe
grapes ! Then at least, whether it had been Phyllis, or
Amyntas, or any other love ; and what if Amyntas be brown ?
violets are dark too and so are hyacinths dark — I should have

ECLOGUE X. 9-70. 31

liad them ever Ly my side, among tlie willows, umler the
limber vine ; Phyllis plucking me flowers for a wreath,
Amyntas singing. See, here are cold springs and soft meadows,
Lycoris, and a forest of trees ; here I could wear away with
thee by mere lapse of time. And now this mad passion for
the savage war-god is keeping me here in arms, with weapons
all about me and enemies drawn up before me, while thou,
far away from thy native land — would it were not mine to
believe the tale — ait looking with those cruel, cruel eyes on
the Alpine snows and the frost-bound Rhine, alone without
me at thy side. Oh ! may the frost forbear to harm thee !
may the sharp ice be kept from wounding thy tender feet ! I
will be gone, and set the strains which I have framed in the
measure of Chalcis to the reed of the Sicilian shepherd. Sure
am I that it Avill be better to bear my fate in the woods, with
the dens of wild beasts round me, and engrave my love on the
young growing trees ; they will shoot up, and my love will
shoot up with tliem. Meantime 1 will scour Ma^nalus along
with the nymphs, or have a hunt of fierce boars. Ko stress of
winter shall keop me from besetting with my hounds the
lawns of mount Parthenius. Yes, I can see myself already
on the move over rocks or amid the cry of the woods ; I feel
the ])leasure of winging shafts of Cydon from a bow of Parthia,
as though this were a medicine for madness like mine, or that
tyrant god would ever learn compassion for human suffering !
It is gone — wood nymphs have no charm for me now, nor
songs either. AVoodlands, I must part from you, too, now.
lie is a god whom no endurance of ours can change. No,
not if in midwinter we were to drink the waters of Hebrus, or
submit ourselves to the snows of Sithonia and its sleety cold.
All are conquered by Love ; and let us, too, yield ourselves
Love's captives.

Let thus much suffice, Goddesses, for your poet's song,

32 THE BUCOLICS.

sunfj as ho sifs ami weaves a basket of slender willow.
Goddesses of Pieria, you will enhance its worth to tho
highest in Gallus's ej'es, — Gallus, the love of whom grows on
me hour by hour as fast as the green alder shoots up from
the earth when the spring is new. ISTow let us rise ; there
is apt to be danger to singers in the shade ; danger in tlio
juniper's shade, and crops too suffer from shade. Home with
you, such a meal as you have eaten. Hesper is coming, homo
with you, my goats.

i
A

THE GEORGICS.

HOOK I.

\\'iiAT makes a corn-fielil smile ; "wliat star suits best for
turning up the soil, and marrying the vine to the elm ; what
care oxen need ; "wliat is the method of breeding cattle ; anl
what -weight of men's experience preserves the frugal common-
wealth of bees: such is the song I now essay. Brightest
lights of the world, that guide the year's smooth course
through heaven : fatlier Liber and mother Ceres ; if it was
by your bounty that Earth changed the acorn of Chaonia for
the plump well-favoured corn-ear, and found the grape where-
with to temper lier draught of Achelous : you too, Fauns, the
countryman's propitious deities, trip hither in time, Fauns
and Dryad maidens, I sing of your bounty too : and thou,
for whom Earth first teemed forth the fiery liorse under the
stroke of thy mighty trident, Neptune ; and thou, dresser of
woods and groves, to pleasure whom Ceos' luxuriant brakes
are browsed by three hundred snow-white bullocks ; come
thou, too, in thy power, from thy forest home and the Lycaean
lawns, Pan, tender of sheep, by the love thou bearest thy
^Mcenalus, 0 stand graciously at my side, god of Tegea ; and
thou, ]\Iinerva, who foundest the olive for man; and thou,
blessed youth, who showedst him the crooked plough ; amf

34

THE GEORGICS.

Silvanus, carrying a young cypress, fresh torn up by its roota
— gods and goddesses all, wliose province is the guardianship
of the country — both ye who foster the ncAV-bom produce that
springs up unsown, and ye who send down on the sown crop
plenteous rain from heaven. And thou, last not least, of
whom we know not in what house of gods thou art in good
time to sit — whether it be our Caesar's pleasure to preside
over cities and take charge of the earth, that so the vast world
may welcome thee as the giver of its increase, and lord of its
changeful seasons, crowning thy brows with thy mother's own
myrtle ; or whether thy coming shall be as the god of the
unmeasured sea, the sole power to claim the seaman's homage,
with furthest Thulc for thy handmaid, and Tethys, buying
thee for her daughter with the dower of all her waves ; or
whether thou art to give us a new star to quicken our lazy
months, just where a space opens itself between Erigone and
the Claws that come next in order :— see, there is the fiery
Scorpion, already drawing in his arms for thee, and leaving
thee more than thy fair share of the sky. Whatever thy
future place — for let not Tartarus hope to have thee for its
king, nor mayest thou ever feel so monstrous an ambition ;
though Greece see charms in her Elysian fields, and Pro-
serpine, spite of her mother's journey, refuse to follow lier
back to earth — vouchsafe me a smooth course, and smile on
my bold eiideavours, and in pity, like mine, for the country-
man as he wanders blind and unguided, assume the god, and
attune thine ear betimes to the voice of prayer.

Tn the dawn of spring, when icy streams trickle melting
from the hoar mountains, and the crumbling clod breaks its
chain at the west wind's touch, even then I would fain see
the plough driven deep till the bull groans again, and the
share rubbed in the furrow till it shines. That is the corn-
field to give an answer, full though late, to the grasping

BOOK I. 20-So. 23

farmer's prayer, Avliicli has twice been laid bare to summer
heat, and twice to winter cold — that is the corn-field to burst
the barns with its unmeasured crop. Before, liowever, our
share breaks the crust of an unknown soil, our care should be
to understand the winds, and the divers humours of the sky,
and the traditional culture and habitude of tlic land, -what
each clime produces and ■what each disowns. Here you sec
corn crops, there grapes have kindlier growth: other spots are
crreen with the vouncj of trees and grass that comes xmbidden.
Only see how it is Tmolus that sends u? its saffron frag-
rance, India its ivory, the soft Arab his frankincense, the
naked Chalybs, again, his iron, Pontus its potent castor,
Epirus the prizes of the marcs of Elis ! Such is the cliain of
law, such the eternal covenant with which Xature has bound
certain climes, from the day wlien Deucalion first hurled his
stones on the unpeopled earth — stones, wliencc sprang man's
race, hard as they. Come, then, and let your rich soil,
soon as ever the year begins, be turned up by the bullock's
strength — let the clods be exposed for Summer to bake tlicm
to dust with its full mellow suns ; but if the land be not
fertile, be content to wait till Arcturus, and then just raise
the surface with a shallow furrow — in the one case, that a
luxuriant crop may not be choked with weeds ; in the other,
that the barren seed may not lose the little moisture it has.

^Moreover, in alternate years, you Avill let your fields lie
fallow after reaping, and suffer the scurf to harden on the
inactive plain ; or you will sow your golden spelt when
another star arises; where jou lately took off the rattliug
pods of a luxuriant bean crop, or the yield of the slender
vetch and the bitter lupine's brittle stems and echoing jungle.
For a plain is parched by a crop of fiax ; parched by the
oat, parched by' the poppy steeped in slumberous Lethe. Yet
rotation will lighten the- strain ; only think of the dried-up

36 THE GEORGICS. .

soil, and be not afraid to give it its fiU of rich manure— tliinli
of the exhausted field, and fling about the grimy ashes broad-
cast. Then, under the change of produce, the land gets equal
rest, and you escape the thanklessness of an unploughed soil
Oft, too, has it been found of use to set a barren field on fire,
and let the crackling flames burn up the light stubble:
■whether it be that the land derives hidden strength and
fattening nourishment from the process, or that the fire bakes
out any distemper it may have, and sweats out its superfluous
moisture, or that the heat opens fresh passages and secret
apertures through Avhich life-juice may come to the tender
blades, or that it makes the land harder, and binds up its
gaping pores, that so the subtle shower and the fierce sun's
unusual tyranny, and the north wind's searching cold may
have no power to parch it to the quick. Great, aye, great are
his services to the land who breaks up its sluggish clods with
the harrow, and drags over them his wicker hurdles : the
golden corn-goddess eyes him from her Olympian height with
no idle regard ; great, too, his, who having once broken
through the land's crust, and made it lift its ridgy back, turns
his plough, and drives through it a second time crosswise, and
piles earth again and again, and bows her fields to his will.

A wet summer and a fine winter should be the farmer's
prayer. From winter's dust comes great joy to the corn, joy
to the land. I^o tillage gives Mysia such cause for boasting,
or Gargarus for wondering at his own harvest. Why talk of
the man who having cast his seed, follows up the blow with
his rake, and levels the bare sandy ridges, and then wdien the
corn is springing up, brings on it streaming w^aters, that follow
as he leads ; and when the scorched land i? in a glow, and the
com blades dying — 0 joy ! from the brow of the channelled
slope entices the floods ? , See ! down it tumbles, waking
hoarse murmurs among the smooth stones, and allaving the

• BOOK I. 80-140. 37

Kun-stnick ground as it bubbles on. Why talk of liini, wiio in
his care lest the weight of the ear should overbear the stem?,
grazes down the luxuriance of the crop while yet in the blade,
when the springing corn has just reached the furrow's top ; or
of him, who drains off the whole watery contents of a marsh by
absorbent sand — especially where, in the treacherous seasons,
a river overflows, and covers whole acres with a coat of mud,
making the hollow furrows steam acrain with the reekim:
moisture ?

Do not think either, after all that the labour of man and
lieast has gone through in turning the soil over and over, that
no harm is to be feared from the tormenting goose, the crane
from tlie Strymon, or tlie bitter fibres of chicory ; no injury
from excess of shade. Xo, the wise Father of all has willed
tliat the farmer's path fhould be no easy one. He was the
lirst to break up the land b}' human skill, using care to sharpen
men's wits, nor letting the realm he had made his own grow
•hill under the weight of lethargy. Before Jove's time never
husbandman subdued the country. Even to set a mark on the
champaign or divide it with a boundary line was a thing
unlawful. Men's gettings were for the common stock, and
earth of her own free will produced everything, and that more
freely than now, though none asked it of her. He it was that
gave the black snake its baleful venom, and ordered the wolf
to prowl and the sea to swell, stripped the leaves of their
honey, and put the fire away, and stopped the wine that used
to flow in common river-beds — that experience, through patient
tliought, might hammer out divers arts by slow degrees —
might get at the corn blade by delving the furrow, and smite
out from tlie heart of the flint the hidden fire. Then it was
that the hollowed alder first touched the river — then the
mariner numbered and named the stars — Pleiades, and Hyades,
and Lycaon's glittering child, the Bear. Then men found how

38 THE GEORGICS.

to capture game with the noose, to beguile them with lime,
and how to let their hounds round the mighty lawns. And
one man has learned already to flog a wide river with his cast-
ing net, making for the deep, while another is dragging his
dripping meshes through the sea. Then came stubborn iron
and the thin creaking saw — for the first men clove their wood
Avith the wedge — then came the divers arts of life. So Toil
conquered the world, relentless Toil, and "Want that grinds
in adversity.

Ceres was the first to teach men to break up the earth with
iron, in days when the sacred forests had begun to fall short
in acorns and arbutes, and Dodona to withhold her sustenance.
Soon, however, the wheat had plagues of its own — the baleful
mildew was bidden to eat the stems, and the lazy thistle to set
up its spikes in the fields. The crops begin to die, and a
prickly jungle steals into their place, burrs, caltrops and the
like ; and among the glistening corn towers like a king tlie
unkindly darnel and the unfruitful oat. So, unless your rake
is ever ready to exterminate weeds, your shout to scare away
birds, your hook to restrain the shade which darkens the land,
and your prayers to call down rain, poor man, j'ou will gaze
on your neighbour's big heap of grain, with unavailing envy,
Betake yourself to the woods again, and shake the oak to allay
your hunger.

I must tell you, too, wluiL are the stout farmer's weapons
of war, without whose aid none has ever sown or raised a crop.
First the share, and the bent plough's heavy wood, and the
slow lumbering Avains of the mighty Mother of Eleusis, sledges
and drags, and the rakes with their cruel weight, and the cheap
wicker-work furniture of Celeus, bush-harrows of arbute twigs,
and lacchus' mystic fan — implements these which you will
remember to store up long before the day of need, if you are
destined to win and wear the full glories of the divine country.

BOOK I. 1^0-198. 39

From its youth up in the woods the ehn is beat by main force
and trained into a beam, taking the form of the crooked
plough ; to suit this a pole is shaped, stretching eight feet in
length with two cartli-boards, and a share-beam with its back
on each side. So the light linden tree is cut dovm. betimes
for the yoke, and the tall beech which is to be the handle to
guide the carriage from behind, and the wood is hung up over
the hearth for the smoke to season it.

I could repeat to you many rules of old experience, but I see
you start off and weary of listening to such petty cares. The
threshing-floor in particular has to be smoothed with a heavy
roller, kneaded with the hand, and made solid with astringent
chalk, lest weeds should creep into it, or dust get into it and
break it into holes, and then all manner of plagues make tlieir
game of it — the tiny mouse for example often sets up a home
and builds a granary under ground, or the blind mole scrapes
out a lurking place, or toads are found in the hollows, and all
the other loathly creatures that the earth produces, and ravages
are made in a huge heap of corn by the weevil, and the ant
which ever fears for an old age of poverty.

Observe, too, when the walnut-tree in the plantation bursts
into blossom all over and makes its fragrant boughs bend again,
if the bulk of them turn to fruit, grain will follow in like pro-
portion, and there will be a great day for the threshing and a
great one for the heat ; but if it is a laxuriance of leaves that
makes the shade so abundant, the threshing-floor will be tasked
in vain, bruising stems laden only with chaff.

As for pulse, I have known many men steep it ere they
sowed it, drenching it first with nitre and black mother-of-
oil, that the treacherous pods might yield a larger produce,
and one that would boil readily over a small fire. Yet spite
of all patience in choosing, spite of all pains in examining, I
have seen the race die out, unless where men's power, year by

40 THE GEORGICS.

year, picked out tlie lari,'est one by one. So is it — all earthly
things are doomed to fall away and slip back into chaos, like
a boatman who just manages to make head against the stream,
if the tension of his arms happens to relax, and the current
•whirls away the boat headlong down the river's bed.

Moreover it is as much our interest to watch Arcturus' sign,
and the rising of the Kids, and the glittering Snake, as theirs
who sailing homeward over the stormy water explore Pontus
and the jaws of oyster-breeding Abydus. When the Balance
has apportioned the hours equally between daytime and sleeji,
and is giving half the circle of the sky to light and half to
shade ; come, my brave men, task your oxen, sow barley
broadcast over the field, till the very verge of the cold winter
rains, when no hand can be put to work. Then, too, is the
time to bury in the earth your future crop of flax, and the
poppy that the corn-goddess loves, aye, and more than time
to stoop vigorously over the plough, while the dry earth will
let you, while the clouds hang unbroken. Spring is the sow-
ing time for beans — then, too, the lucerne is welcomed by tl.e
fallow furrows, and millet claims its yearly care, when the
snow-white Bull with his gilded horns throws open the year,
and the Dog sets in retreat before the star's advancing front.
But if it is for a harvest of wheat and hardy spelt that you
would task the soil, pressing on Avith ardour which only corn
can satisfy, first see Atlas' children take their morning
departure, and the star of Gnossus, the blazing crown, recede
from view, ere you charge the furrows with the seed they have
begun to want, or force the care of a whole year's losses on a
reluctant soil. j\[any have begun ere the setting of Maia;
Ijut they have found their expected crop mock them with a
.show of empty corn-ears. But if you are for sowing vetches
and cheap kidney-beans, and do not think time ill-spent over
the Icntile of Peluf iuni, you cannot misread the prognostic given

BOOK I. 195-25S. 41

by Bootes at liis setting — begin, and carry on your sowing
into the heart of the frosty season.

It is to this end that the orbit of the golden sun, divided
into fixed portions, is guided through tlie world's twelve signs.
Five zones comprise the heaven ; one of them, ever glowing
under the sun's glance, ever scorched by his flame ; on each
fide of which, right and left, two others stretch away into the
far distance — frozen homes of dull green ice and black storms.
Between these and the central zone yet other twain have been
vouchsafed to over-toiled humanity by the clemency of Heaven,
and betwixt them has been cut a path, along which the suc-
cession of the signs may turn obliquely. High as the globe
rises towards Scythia and the pinnacles of Rhipcean hills, so
deep is its downward slope to Libya and its southern clime.
The one pole ever stands towering above our heads ; the other
is thrust down beneath the feet of murky Styx and her abys-
mal spectres. Here, Avith his monstrous spiral coils, shoots out
the Snake, winding like a river around and between the two
]^ears — the Bears who ever- shrink from the touch of ocean's
waters. There, some say, all is wrapped in eternal night,
with its silence that, knows no seasons, and its thick pall
deepening the gloom ; or, as others think, Aurora visits them
when she leaves us, and brings them back the day ; and as
we feel the first breath of her orient steeds panting up our
sky, among them Vesper, all crimson, is lighting its evening
torch. Hence it is that Ave can foretell the changes of the
titful heaven, the harvest-tide, and the time for sowing, and
Avhat season is best for breaking with our oars the sea's
treacherous calm ; Avhat for rigging and launching a fleet, or
laying low the pine among its forest brethren when its time
is come. Aye, hence it is that we watch, not in vain, for the
signs as they rise and set, and for the four Seasons whose
diversity regulates the year.

42 THE GEORGICS.

'Wlienever a cold rainy day keeps tlie farmer a prisoner,
it is but a boon, enabling liim to get ready in time many
things which he would have had to hurry through ere long
in fine weather. See, the plougliman sits hammering out the
fang of his ploughshare, which has been blunted, or hollowing
a trough out of a tree, or he has set marks on his cattle, cr
numbers on his corn-sacks ; others are sharpening stakes and
two-pronged forks, and making bands of Amerian willows
for tying up the limber vine. ISTow is your time ; plait
baskets of the pliant bramble-twig, parch your corn at the
fire, or bruise it with the millstone. Why, even on holy-days,
some work is permitted by the laws of heaven and earth.
The strictest worshipper has never scrupled to let off a river,
plant a hedge to protect his crop, set traps for birds, fire the
brambles, or wash his bleating flock for health's sake in the
stream. Often, too, has the slow ass his sides laden with
oil or plenty of cheap apples by his driver, who comes back
from town with a dented millstone, or a lump of black pitch
for his trouble.

The moon herself has assigned her several days to man, as
each in its several degree propitious to labour. Avoid the
fifth ; then was l^orn the ghastly God of Death and the
Euries ; then it was that the Earth produced her monster
brood — Coeus and lapetus and fell Typhoeus, and the
brethren who banded together to tear down heaven's gates.
Thrice, indeed, did they essay to heap Ossa on Pelion, and
upheave on to Ossa the forests of Olympus ; thrice the Father
with his thunderbolt dashed their mountain pile to pieces.
Tlie seventeenth is lucky for planting out the vine, taking
and breaking in young oxen, and adding the leashes to the
warp. The ninth smiles on runaways, but frowns on
thieving.

Nay, there arc many cases where nature submits to man

BOOK I. 259-316. 43

more readily in cliilly niglit, or ■when the sun is young, and
the morning star sends dew on the earth, Night is the best
for cutting the h'ght stubble, night for the dry meadows ;
night has always good store of moisture to supple the grass.
I know a man who will sit by the light of a winter fire the
whole niglit through, with a sharp knife notching his brands,
while his Avife, solacing her tedious task with song, draws her
shrill comb quickly over the warp, or with the fire-god's help
boils down the sweet liquid must, and skims with a leaf the
wave of the simmering caldron.

Eut the ruddy corn-goddess is reaped in midsummer heat,
and in midsummer heat the parched ears are bruised on the
threshing-floor. Strip to plough, strip to sow ; winter is a
lazy time for the farmer. In cold weather the husbandman
tliiiiks rather of enjoying what he has got, and making merry
with his neighbours in friendly companies. "Winter is the
entertainer, calling out man's happier self, and unbinding his
load of care, as it were the end of a long voyage, when the
heavy-laden vessel has at length touched the harbour's bar,
and the sailors in ecstasy are wreathing her stern with
garlands. Then, however, is the time to strip acorns for
fodder, and the berries of the bay, the olive, and the blood-
red myrtle ; the time to set springes for cranes and nets for
deer, and chase the long-eared hare ; the time to strike the
doe with a vigorous sweep of the hempen lash of your Balearic
sling, in the days when the snow lies in deep drifts, when
the floods roll down their ice.

AVhy talk of the fitful changes of Autumn and its signs,
and the dangers against which men must watch when the
days begin to shorten, and the summer heat to soften, or
when Spring pours down in showers, when the plain already
bristles with waving ears, and the corn on its green stem is
swelling with milky juice? Oft have I, when the farmer

44 THE GEORGICS.

•was taking his reaper into the yellow field, and just beginning
to top the barley's frail stalk, seen all the armies of the winds
meet in the shock of battle, tearing up by the roots whole
acres of heavy corn, and whirling it on high, just as a common
hurricane would sweep down its dark current light straw and
flying stubble. Oft, too, comes rushing from the sky a vast
column of waters, the clouds mustering from the length and
breadth of heaven, and making their dark storms into one
great murky tempest ; down crashes the whole dome of the
firmament, washing away before the mighty rain-deluge all
those smiling crops, all for which the ox toiled so hard. The
dykes are filled, the deep streams swell with a roar, and the
sea glows again through every panting inlet. The great
Father himself, intrenched in a night of storm-clouds, wields
tlie huge thunderbolt with flashinc; arm : at that shock the
giant earth trembles, the beasts have disappeared, and men's
hearts all the world over lie quailing low in terror ; he with
his blazing javelin strikes Athos or Ehodope on the high
Ceraunian range : doubly loud howls the south wind, doubly
thick gathers the cloud of rain, and under the blast's mighty
stroke forest and shore by turns wail in agony.

With this terror before you, look watchfully to the heaven,
its seasons and its signs. ]\Iark into what dreary regions
Saturn's cold star withdraws itself ; what celestial orbit com-
prises the wanderings of the Cyllenian fire. First of all, wor-
ship the gods, and year by year pay great Ceres her recurring
honour, with a sacrifice on the luxuriant sward, when winter
has at last fallen, and spring begins to clear the sky. Those
are the days when lambs are fat, and wine at its mellowest,
when sleep is pleasant, and the trees on the mountains thick
of shade. Then summon all your rustic force to worship
Ceres ; to pleasure her, mix the honeycomb with milk, and
the wine-god's mellow juice, and thrice let the auspicious

BOOK I. 3i<:-375- 45

victim be led round the young corn, with the whole quire of
your mates following it in triumpli, and sliouting invitations
to Ceres to come and dwell with them ; nor let any put the
sickle into the ripe corn, ere in Ceres' honour he wreathe his
brow with the oaken chaplet, join in the uncouth dance, and
take part in tlie song !

^loreover, it is that these dangers may be known to us by
infallible tokens — the beat, I mean, and the rain, and the
wind that brings the cold — that the great Fatlier himself has
ordained what should be the lesson taught by each month's
moon, what the signal for the south wind to fall asleep, what
the symptom which, repeatedly observed, makes the husband-
man keep his herds within sight of their stalls. From the
first, Avhen the wind is getting up, either the inlets of the sea
be"in to work and swell, and a drv crashing sound is heard
shivering down the high mountains, or a confused roar echoes
far along the beach, and the whispering of the forests comes
fast and thick. By this time the wave can scarcely keep
itself from falling on the vessel's keel, at the moment wlien
llie gulls fly swiftly home from over the sea, and their n:iso
travels with them to the shore ; at the moment, when the
cormorants, whose element is the water, are sporting on the
land, and the heron forsakes its home in the marsh, and flies
aloft above the clouds. Often, too, when wind is near, you
will see stars shooting headlong from the sky, Avith long trails
of flame behind them, glimmering white through the blackness
of night ; often you will see light chaff and fallen leaves flying
about, and films of gossamer in sportive conjunction floating
on the water's brim. But when from the quarter of the savage
North come lightnings, and thunder rolls through the halls of
the East and the West, every field is flooded from the dyke's
overflow, and every sailor afloat furls his dripping sails, Xever
man was surprised by rain at unawares. He might either

46 THE GEORGICS.

liave seen the cranes dropping from the sky to the depths of
the valley, to shelter themselves from it as it rises, or the
Jieifer turning its face to heaven, and sniffing up the air with
its broad nostrils, or the swallow flying twitteriiigly round and
round the pool, and the frogs sitting in the slime, and singing
their old complaining note. Often, too, the ant is seen carry-
ing its eggs out of its secret cells along that narrow well-worn
path, and the great rainbow drinking, and the army of rooks,
as it draws off from its pasture in long column, crying and
flapping its serried Avings. Again, the tribes of sea-birds, and
such as dig for treasure far and wide in the Asian meads
among Cayster's sweet waters, may be observed in rivalry with
each, other, pouring showers of spray over their backs, now
presenting their heads to the waves, now running into the sea,
rejoicing, as it were, in the mere aimless delight of bathing.
Then the raven, in her deep tones, like an ill spirit, calls down
tlie rain, and stalks in stately solitude along the dry sea sand.
Even at night, maidens at their tasks can still tell stormy
weather, when in the blazing lamp they see the oil sputter,
and fungus clots form round the wick.

Not less sure are the signs by Avhich to foresee and learn
a change from rain to sunshine and clear open sky. Then
there is no bluntness about the edge of the stars, nor does the
moon seem to rise in deep debt to her brother's light, nor are
thin fleeces of wool seen to float over the sky. Nor do the
Halcyons, whom the sea-goddess loves, stand on the shore,
spreading their wings to the warm sun ; nor does it occur to
the uncleanly swine to toss in their snouts loosened wisps of
hay. But the clouds fly lower and stretch themselves along
tlic plain, and as she Avatches the sunset on her tower, the
owl, all for nothing, keeps plying her weary task of song.
Nisus is seen soaring in the clear sky, Avhile Scylla suffers
vengeance for the purple ringlet. Wherever her flying Aviugs

BOOK I. 37S--\37- 47

cut througli the tliia ether, sec there is Nisus, her savage foe,
with a mighty sound aliasing her through the air, "Where
Nisus flies up into the air there is she, with her flying wings
cutting scuddingly through the thin ether. Then the rooks,
naiTOwing their throats, utter a clear note, three or four times
over, and repeatedly in their nests on the tree top, moved by
some mysterious ecstasy beyond their wont, make a chatter
among the leaves for pleasure belike, when the rain is over,
at seeing their young and their own dear nests again. Xot,
if I may judge, that Heaven has given them any spark of wit
like ours, or Fate any deeper insight into things, but that
\vhcn the weather and the fitful moisture of the sky has
changed its course, and the god of the air with his wet gales
from the south condenses particles, which crc-while were thin,
and releases what was dense, there is a change in tlie phases
of their life, and movements rise in their breasts, unlike those
they felt while the wind was gathering the clouds. There lies
the secret of the birds' rural chorus, and the ecstasy of the
cattle, and the rook's triumphant prean.

But if you will watch the whirling sun and the array of the
moons, the morrow will never play you false, nor will you fall
into the snare set by a clear night. "When the moon is first
mustering her rallied fires, if her horns are dull, with, dark

«

atmosphere between, there will be a mighty storm brewing
for farming-men and sea. But if her face should be suffused
with a maiden blush, then there will be wind : the approach
of wind ever flushes tlie cheek of golden Phoebe. But if, on
her fourth rising, for that is your safest counsellor, she shall
sail through the sky clear, and with unblunted horn, then that
whole day, aye, and the days which shall be born from it to
the month's end, shall be untroubled by rain or wind, and sea-
men safely landed shall pay their vows on the beach to Glaucus
and Panopea, and Ino's darling, Melicerta.

48 THE GEORGICS.

The sun, too, alike wlien rising and when going under the
wave, will give you tokens : no train of tokens is surer tlian
the sun's, those which attend his morning return, and those
which recur with the rising stars. For him, when you find
him flecking his infant dawn with spots, buried in a cloud,
and shrinking from the middle of his disk, beware of showers :
for there is looming overhead a south wind, foe to tree, and
crop, and cattle. Again, when at daybreak his rays come
shivered and scattered through a thick mass of cloud, or when
Aurora rises pale from Tithonus' saffron bed, alas, the vine
branch that day will be a poor shelter to your ripe grapes, so
pelting are the spokes of hail that bound and crackle on your
roof. This warning, too, it will serve you more to bear in
mind when he has finished his course, and is quitting the sky,
for then we often see various hues wandering over his coun-
tenance : the dusky portends rain, the fiery-red east winds ;
but if dark spots and red fire begin to blend, then you will see
the wdiole firmament in one fierce turmoil of wind and storm-
cloud. Let no one advise me to take a journey on the sea tliat
night, or pluck the cable from the shore. Lut if both when
he restores the day, and Avhen he hides away again the restored
treasure, his disk is bright, your alarms of storm-clouds will
be vain, and you will see the woods swaying to and fro in a
clear north wind.

In short, the secrets which evening carries on his wing, the
quarter whence a fair wind will blow to drive away the clouds,
the hidden purposes of the rainy South, of all these the Sun
will give you prognostics. The Sun — who will dare to call
him untrue 1 K^ay, he it is who often betrays the stealthy
approach of battle alarms, the heavings of treason and con-
cealed rebellion. 2^ay, he it was that had compassion for
Rome at her Caesar's death, when he veiled his shining head
with a gloom of iron-grey, and a godless world was afraid of

BOOK I. 4 38- ^99. 49-

everlasting niglit. Thougli that in truth was a crisis when
Earth and the expanse of Ocean, dogs of evil name and birds
of ill omen gave their prognostics too. IIow often have we
seen the fire-god's cells burst, and ^tna in a stream blazing
forth on the Cyclops' domain, with balls of flame and molten
stones sweeping along ! The clashing of arms was heard by
Germany from sky to sky ; strange convulsions sent a trem-
bling through the Alps. There was a voice, too, heard by many
through the still temple- groves, deeper tlian human ; ami
spectres of unearthly pallor were seen at the dead of night,
and cattle — the tale is too dire to tell— spoke like men : see !
the rivers stay their courses, the earth yawns, the ivory in the
fanes sheds tears for sorrow, and the brass sweats. With the
sweep of its frenzied torrent it bears down whole forests, that
king of rivers, Eridanus, hurling before it, far as the plain ex-
tends, stall and cattle alike. Xo respite was there in those
fearful days to the threatening filaments that overcast the
entrails with sadness, or to the blood that welled from springs
in the ground, or to the howling of wolves by night, echoing
through our steep-built towns. Never also fell there more
thunder-bolts from a clear sky ; never blazed comets with fre-
quency so appalling. Hence it was that the spectacle of two
Roman hosts, armed alike, meeting in the shock of fight, was
seen once more by Philippi, nor did the Powers above think
it shame that our best blood should twice serve to fatten the
land of Emathia and Hsemus' broad plains. Yes, and the
time will come when in those borders the husbandman, as with
his crooked plough he upheaves the mass of earth, will find,
devoured by a scurf of rust, Roman javelins, or strike his heavy
rake on empty helms, and gaze astounded on the gigantic bones
that start from their broken sepulchres.

Gods of our fathers, native powers, and Romulus and Vesta,
our great mother, who preservest tb.o Etruscan Tiber and

50 THE GEORGICS.

Koine's j^alaces, at least let this younger champion come to
the aid of a world o'erthrown, with none to hinder him. To
the full, long since, has our best blood atoned for the perjuries
of Laomedon and his Troy. Long since, Ca3sar, has heaven's
kingly home been grudging thee to this our earth, complaining
that thy thoughts are all for human triumphs — triumphs among
a race where right and wrong are confounded, in a globe that
teems with war and swarms with the myriad forms of crime ;
where the plough meets with nought of its due honour ; where
the tiller is swept off and the land left to weeds, and the hook
has its curve straightened into the swordblade. In the East,
Euphrates is stirring up war, in the West ^Germany; nay,
close-neighbouring cities break their mutual league and draw
the sword — and the war-god's unhallowed fury rages the whole
earth through ; even as when in the Circus the chariots burst
from their floodgates, they dash into the course, and pulling
desperately at the reins the driver lets the horaes drive him,
and the car is deaf to the curb.

( 5' )

EOOK IL

Thus far of the tillage of the fields and of the stars of heaven.
Kow of thee, Bacchus, will I sing, and of the young forest
trees as united with thee, and of the progeny of the slowly-
growing olive. Come hither, father of the wiue-press — every-
thing here is filled with thy gifts — for thee the land looks
gay, as it teems with the viny harvest, the vintage is foaming
in the brimming vats. Come hither, father of the wine-press
— strip oil" thy buskins, bare thy legs, and plunge them with
me in the new must.

First, the law of the production of trees is various. For
some, under no compulsion from men, grow up of themselves,
of their own accord, and spread widely over the plains and
the Aviiiding river banks, like the pliant osier and the limber
broom, the poplar, and the willow groves that look so hoary
with their grey leaves. Some again spring up from the drop-
ping of seed, like the tall chestnuts, and the forest-monarch
which puts forth its royal leaves for Jove, the aesculus, and
the oaks, in Greece deemed oracular. "With others a dense
forest of suckers shoots up from their roots, as with cherry-
trees and elms — nay, the bay of Parnassus rears its infant
head under the mighty covert of its mother's shade. These
are the modes which Nature first gave to men unasked — to
these the whole race of forest-trees and shrubs and sacred
groves owe their verdure.

Other modes there are which experience, working by

52 THE GEORGICS.

metliod, has found out for itself. One lias thought of tearing
oif suckers from their mother's tender frame, and planting
them in furrows ; another has buried stocks in the ground,
truncheons cleft in four, and stakes sharpened to a point.
Some forest-trees yearn for the arch of the depressed layer,
and for slips which partake of their life and spring from their
soil. Others want nothing of the root ; the gardener as he
prunes the tree confidently takes the topmost branch and
restores it as a trust to its native earth. Nay, the olive, when
cut down to a stump, marvellous to relate, strikes a root out
of the dry wood. Often, too, Ave see the branches of one tree
transformed to those of another by harmless magic — the pear-
tree is changed and bears a crop of engrafted apples — the
stony cornels look red on the plum-tree.

Come, then, husbandmen, and learn the culture proper to
each according to its kind, and so mellow your wild fruits by
cultivation, nor let the ground lie idle. What joy, to plant
Ismarus all over with the progeny of Bacchus, and clothe the
mighty sides of Taburnus with a garment of olives. Le thou,
too, at my side, and traverse with me the task that I have
essayed, thou Avho art my glory, to whom the largest share of
my fame of right belongs, and spread thy flying sails over this
broad ocean. ISTot that I aim at embracing all with my song.
I could not, had I a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, a
voice of brass. Come with me and coast along the line of the
shore — the land is close at hand. I will not detain thee here
with mythic strains, or circuitous detail, or lengthy preambles.

The trees Avhich of their own accord rear themselves up into
the realms of light grow up unfruitful, but luxuriant and vigor-
ous— for there are latent forces of nature in the soil Yet un-
fruitful as they are, if grafted with others or transplanted to pits
where the earth has been well worked, they will be found to have
put off their savage temper, and under constant cultivation to

BOOK II. 22-S2. 53

learn readily whatever lessons you may choose to teach them.
So with the barren sucker that springs from the root, if it ho
planted out with clear ground to expatiate in — as it now is,
the towering foliage and branches of its mother overshadow it,
and rob it of its fruit as it grows up, and wither up the pro-
ductive powers it exerts. Again, the tree which owes its
birth to cliance-dro[)t seed comes up slowly, reserving its
shade for generations yet uaborn — apples degenerate, having
lost the traditions of their ancient flavour, and the vine bears
ignoble clusters for birds to pillage. The fact is, all must
have labour spent on them — all must be drilled into trenches
and subdued with toil and pain. Olives, however, answer
best from truncheons, vines from layers, l*aphian myrtles
from the solid wood. From suckers are raised the sturdy
hazels, and the huge ash, and the tree whose shade crowns
the brows of Hercules, and the acorns of our Chaonian father
— raised, too, is the lofty palm, and the fir which will one
day behold the disasters of the deep. But the prickly
arbutus is grafted with the fruit of the nut, and plane-tree>,
though barren, have borne heavy apples in tlieir day — the
chestnut's blossom has whitened the beech, the pear's the
mountain ash, and SAvine liave crunched acorns that they
found under the elm. Nor is the method of grafting and of
inoculation one and the same. "Where the buds sprout forth
from the middle of the bark antl burst the thin coats, there
is a small orifice in the knot thus caused ; into it they intro-
duce a bud from a strange tree, and teach it to grow into the
bark that gives it the sap of life. Or again incision is made
in the stem where there are no knots, and a deep passage is
cloven by wedges into solid wood. Tlien shoots that will
bear are let in — a little while, and the tree has started up
towards the sky with a weight of teeming branches, marvel-
ling at its strange foliage, and a fruitage not its own.

54 THE GEORGICS.

Further, there is not one kind only of stalwart elms, or of
the willow and the lotus, or the cypresses of Ida, nor are fat
olives all produced after one type — orchads and radii — and
pausians with their bitter fruit ; nor yet the apple-forests of
Alcinous ; nor is the scion the same which produces Syrian
and Crustumian pears and big hand-fillers. The vintage that
hangs from our trees is not the same which Lesbos gathers
from the tendrils of Methymna. There are Thasian vines,
there are Mareotids, which are white ; these suited for rich
soils, those for the lighter sort ; and the Psithian, which does
better for raisin-wine ; and the Lageos, whose thin light juice
will one day trouble the feet and tie up the tongue; and
purples, and early-ripes — thou, too, grape of Rhsetia, how
shall I sing thy praises ? Yet measure not thyself, therefore,
against cellars of Falemum. Then there are the Aminsean
vines — best of wines to keep — to which the Tmolian veils his
crest, and the royal Phanseus himself, and the lesser Argitis,
with Avhich none will be found to vie, either for the streams
of juice that it yields, or for the length of years that it lasts.
Far be it from me to pass over thee, Rhodian — welcome to
the gods and to the banquet's second course — or Bumastus,
with thy big swelling clusters. But there is no number to
tell how many kinds there are, or what their names ; indeed,
it skills not to measure them by number. The man who
would have such knowledge would wish also to know how
many sand-grains are lashed by the zephyr on the Libyan
waste, or when the east wind falls with violence on the ship-
ping, to tell how many waves the Ionian sea sends rolling
to the shore.

Nor, indeed, is every soil able to produce everything.
Willows grow by rivers, alders in rank boggy ground, barren
ashes in a stony mountainous country. The most luxuriant
myrtle groves are on the shore. Lastly, Bacchus is partial to

BOOK II. 83-145. 55

broad sunny hills, the yew-tree to north winds and cold.
Look also at the extremities of the earth as subdued by till-
age, the Eastern homes of the Arabs and the tattooed Gelonians.
There you "will find trees with their countries portioned out to
them. None but India produces black ebony ; the spray of
frankincense belongs to none but the Sabseans. Why tell thee
of the balsams, the sweat of the fragrant wood, or of the berries
of the evergreen acanthus 1 "Why speak of the woods of the
Ethiopians, with their hoary locks of soft wool, or how the
Seres comb silky fleeces from the lambs ? Or the forests which
India bears, hard by the ocean, the utmost corner of the world
— forests where no shot of an arrow can reach the sky that
tops the trees ; and the natives are not slow, either, when they
take up the quiver? Media produces the bitter juice and
lingering flavour of the benignant citron ; no more present help
than that, if ever cruel stepdames have drugged the draught,
mingling herbs and charms not less baleful, to come and expel
the deadly poison from the frame. The tree itself is large,
and very like a bay to look at ; nay, if the scent it flings
about were not different, a bay it had been. No wound can
make it shed its leaves, and the blossom, too, holds fast as few.
The Medes use it for purifying noisome breath, and relieving
the asthma of old age.

But neither Median forests, wealthiest of climes, nor lovely
Ganges, nor Hermus, whose mud is gold, may vie with the
glories of Italy. No, nor Bactria, nor Ind, nor Panchaia, with
all the richness of its incense-bearing sands. Here is a land
where no bulls, breathing fire from their nostrils, have ploughed
the soil ; where no enormous dragons' teeth were ever sown ;
where no human harvest started up, bristling with helms and
crowded lances ; but teeming corn and the vine-god's Massic
juice have made it their own ; its tenants are olives and luxu-
riant herds of cattle. Hence comes the war-horse, that prances

55 THE GEORGICS.

proudly into the battle-field. Hence, Clitumnus, those white
flocks, and the bull, that majestic victim, which oft ere now,
bathed in thy sacred flood, have ushered a Eoman triumph to
the temples of the gods. Here is ceaseless spring, and summer
in months where summer is strange. Twice the cattle give
increase, twice the tree yields its service of fruit. But far
away are fierce tigers and the savage seed of lions ; nor does
aconite grow to beguile the wretched herb-gatherer ; nor does
the serpent roll his huge circles swiftly along the ground, or
gather his scales into a coil with so vast a sweep. Think, too,
of all those stately cities and trophies of human toil, all those
towns piled by man's hand on beetling rocks, with rivers flow-
ing beneath their time-honoured walls. Or sliall T speak of
the two seas that wash it above and below ? or of those mighty
lakes — of thee, Larius, the greatest, and thee, Benacus, heaving
with the swell and the roar of ocean ? or tell of the harbours
and the barrier thrown across the Lucrine, and the rage and
loud thunder of the baffled waters, where the sound of the sea
beaten back echoes far over the Julian Avave, and the Tyrrhe-
nian billows come foaming up into the creeks of Avernusl
It is a land, too, which has disclosed currents of silver and of
copper ore mantling in its veins, and has streamed profusely
with gold — a land that has produced tribes of manly temper —
the Marsian, the Sabine stock, the Ligurian, invn-ed to hard-
ship, and the Volscian spearmen ; the families of the Decii and
the great Camilli, the Scipios — those iron warriors — and thee,
Caesar, greatest of all, who now, crowned with conquest in
Asia's utmost bounds, art driving back the iinwarlike Indian
from the towers of Kome. Hail to thee, land of Saturn, mighty
mother of noble fruits and noble men ! For thee I essay the
theme of the glory and the skill of olden days. For thee I
adventure to break the seal of those hallowed springs, and
sing the. song of Ascra through the towns of Rome.

BOOK II. 145-207. 57

Now for the tempers of fields — what are the powers of each,
Avliat the distinguishing colour, and what the natural aptitude
for gendering things. First, then, those churlish soils and
niggardly hills, where hungry marl and gravel form a bed for
brambles, rejoice in the forest-growth of Minerva's long-lived
olive. You may tell it by the many wild olives that spring
up in the same line of country, and the ground strewn all over
with their Avoodland berries, liut a rich soil, which luxuri-
ates in the moisture of fresh springs, a plain Avith abundant
herbage and a teeming bosom, such as we often see at the
bottom of a mountain hollow — for the streams pour down into
it from the tops of tlie rocks, and carry with them fertilising
slime ; a plain which rises to the south, and produces fern,
that enemy of the crooked ploughshare ; such a soil will one
day bear you good store of vines of excellent health, and
yielding rivers of Bacchic juice : it will teem Avith grapes, and
with liquor, such as we pour in libations from golden cups,
when the plump Etruscan at tlie altar blows through the pipe,
and we offer entrails smoking hot in chargers that bend under
the weight. Ikit if your care be rather to rear cattle, bullocks,
lambs, or goats that kill young shoots, go to the distant lawns
of luxuriant Tarentum, or plains such as that which poor
Mantua lost, supporting silver swans with its weedy stream :
tliore will be no lack of clear springs or grass for your cattle.
Nay, all that your herds can devour on a summer's day, will
be replaced by the cold fresh dew of one short night.

For corn, the best land in the main is that which is black,
and shows itself rich when the ploughshare is driven into it,
and whose soil is cnimbling, that being what we seek to
reproduce by ploughing ; there is no sort of ground from
which you will see more wains dragged home by sturdy toil-
ing bullocks ; or again, land from which timber has been
carted away by the provoked husbandman, levelling wood

58 THE GEORGICS.

wliich has been doing no good these many years, and upset-
ting the leafy homes of the birds, roots and all — the tenants,
ejected from their nests, have gone up into the air, while the
rude field has been brightened up by dint of the ploughshare.
As for the hungry gravel of the hill country, it can barely
furnish shrubs like casia and rosemary for bees ; and the
rugged tufa and the marl all eaten away by black snakes, tell
you plainly that no other ground is so good at supplying
serpents with food that they like, and holes where they may
wind and lurk. But the land which exhales thin vapours
and light steam, which drinks in moisture, and gives it off
again at pleasure, which keeps itself constantly clothed with
the verdure of its own grass, and breeds no scurfy salt rust
to corrode the plough — here is a land which will yield you
luxuriant vines to twine round your elms — a land which pro-
duces olives abundantly — a land wliich the experience of
cultivation will show to be at once well natured for cattle and
submissive to the crooked share. Such is the land that is
fenced by wealthy Capua and the coast neighbouring the
Vesuvian ridge, and Clanius, the oppressor of desolate Acerrjc.

Xow I will tell you how you may distinguish each. If
you want to know whether a soil be loose or exceedingly stiff,
seeing that the one is partial to com, the other to vines ; the
stiffer to the corn-goddess, the loosest to the Avine-god, fix on
a spot of ground, and cause a pit to be sunk in the solid earth,
then put aU the mould back again, and stamp the surface
level. If there is too little, the soil will be loose and more
suited for pasture and fruitful vines ; but if it refuses to go
into its place, so that when the hole is full the earth still
dominates, the clay is thick — prepare yourself for resistance
in the clods and stiffness in the ridges, and let the oxen with
which you break up the ground be strong.

As for a salt or bitter soil, as it is called, which is unkindly

BOOK II. 2C8-268. 59

to produce, never softening under plougliing — where tlie grape
is not true to its race, or the apple to its name, it will test
itself thus : pull down from your smoke-dried roof the thick
plaited baskets and wine-strainers, and into them stamp to the
full that malignant land, along with fresh water from the
spring — all tlie water, you will see, will force itself out, and
l)ig drops will trickle through the plaits — tlie taste will tell
the tale plainly, warping the mouths of the triers into a frown
by the sense of bitterness.

Again, the fatness of a soil, to be brief, is ascertained in
this way : toss it about in the hand, it never crumbles, but
in the act of holding clings to the fingers like pitch. A moist
soil grows large weeds, and its powers of production are moro
luxuriant than need be. Ah ! may I never be troubled by
its over-fertility, or the excess of strength tliat it puts forth
for a first crop ! As for heavy or light soils, their weight
betrays them without a word said. Your eye will tell you at
once which is black, and, in short, which is of what colour.
]5ut the detection of that vile cold is difficult; all that can be
said is, that pines, and noxious yews, and black ivy, occasion-
ally give signs of it.

All this duly observed, remember to get the ground well
l)aked, and the mountains ploughed up with trenches through
their length and breadth, and the clods all turned up and
exposed to the north winds, before you plant the scion of the
luxuriant vine. Fields where the soil is crumbling are the
best ; for that we must thank winds and sharp frosts, and the
main force of the spade labourer, disturbing and loosening the
ground. But men, Avhose watchfulness nothing escapes, look
out first for two similar soils, where the young shoots are to be
nursed for the trees, and where they are afterwards to be taken
and transplanted, that the sudden change may not make tlie
plants feel strangely to their mother. Nay, they mark the

66 THE GEORGICS.

quarter of the heavens on the bark, that tliey may be able to
reproduce the way in which eacli used to stand, the part en
which it bore the brunt of the southern heat, the side which
it presented to the north pole. So powerful are habits formed
in tender years.

Let your first question be, whether the vine would be better
planted on a hill or on the plain. If you decide on laying out
tracts of rich level ground, plant thick ; thick setting will not
dull the powers of the wine-god. But if you fix on land rising
into hillocks and broad slopes, give free scope to your rows —
all the same let the line of each avenue that you draw tally
with the rest when the trees are planted — as you may often
see when a legion has deployed at full length into cohorts for
a great battle, and the column has taken its stand in the open
plain, and the lines are drawn out and all the earth is gleam-
ing like a sea Avith the wavy sheen of brass, while the griui
melee of tlie fight has not yet begun, but the war-god hovers
dubiously between the armies. Let all be laid out in regular
symmetrical avenues, not only that the view may feed the idle
fancy, but because there is no other way of getting the earth
to give an equal share of support to all, or enabling the
branches to spread freely into open air.

Perhaps too you may like to know about the depth of your
pits. I would not mind trusting the vine to a shallow trench,
but its supporter strikes down deeper into the heart of the
earth, especially the sesculus, which does not push its head
further towards the altitudes of heaven than it pushes its
roots towards the dark world beneath. Hence it is that winter
storm and blast and rain cannot tear it from its seat ; it abides
unmoved : many are the posterities, many the generations of
men that it rolls along and lives down victoriously ; while
stretching out its sinewy branching arms on all sides, it sup-
'ports with its central bulk the vast weight of their shade.

BOOK II. 269-3:7. 6r

Do not let your vineyards slant towards the setting sun,
nor plant a liazel among your vines, nor take the topmost
spray of the vine, or pluck the suckers that are to support it
from the top of the tree — the affection for the soil is so great.
— nor injure your buds by using blunt steel, nor plant trun-
cheons of wild olive in vour vinevard ; for careless husband-
men will often drop a spark, Avhich after being first concealed
and sheltered under the unctuous rind, catching the tree,
mounts in a moment into the foliage, and sends a loud sound
up into the air, then runs along and dominates victoriously
among the branches and the summits that tower so high,
and wraps the wliole plantation in flame, and throws up
black clouds of thick pitchy vapour to the sky, especially if a
gale happens to come sweeping down over the woods and a
driving wind gathers and spreads the blaze. In an event like
this, the power of the root is gone ; they cannot be restored
by amputation, or shoot up green as before from tlie deptli
of the soil : the wild olive witii its bitter leaves is left
master of the field.

Let no adviser have such credit for foresight as to persuade
you to medtUe with the earth while it is lying stiff under the
breath of the northern blasts, for then Avinter seals up the
ground Avith cold and does not suffer the plant when set to
strike its frozen root into the soil. The best planting season
for vines is the bloom of spring, at the return of that Avhite
bird, which the long vipers hate so, or in the first cold days
of autumn, when the sun's fiery coursers have not yet reached
winter, though summer is Avell over. . Spring it is, spring,
that does good to woodland foliage and forestry ; in spring
the soil swells and demands impregnation. It is then that
iEther, the Almighty Father of Nature, penetrates the Avomb
of earth Avith his fruitful showers and blending his mighty
fi-ame Avjth hers gives life to all the embryos -vithin. It is

62 THE GEORGICS.

then that the pathless brakes are vocal with the songs of
birds, and the cattle pair in their season. The pai'ent soil
brings forth, and the warm western breezes nnseal the womb
of the fields. A gentle moisture rises over all, and as the
new suns dawn, the herbage ventures to encounter them with
safety, and the young vine-branch has no fear that the south
wind will get up or that the mighty north will shed a burst of
rain from the sky, but puts out its buds and unfolds all its
leaves. I do not believe that the days were brighter or their
course more blissful when the young world first came into
being : it was spring then — it was spring-tide that the great
globe was keeping, and the east winds of winter were for-
bearing to blow, when the earliest cattle opened their eyes
on the light, and an iron race of men rose from the hard soil
of earth, and beasts were turned into the woods, and stars
into the sky. Indeed things so delicate would not be able
to endure such hardships, unless there were a great breathing
time like this coming between cold and heat, and a clement
sky ready to receive the earth.

For the rest, whatever cuttings you set in your land, be
sure to sprinkle them with rich manure and cover them with
plenty of earth ; or bury with them a porous stone or rough
shells, for the w^ater will penetrate between the crevices, and
the searching breath of air will steal in, and the sets will
pluck up heart. Men too have been known ere now to place
a stone over them or a great heavy potsherd, as a protection
against showers of rain, or when the sultry dog-star splits the
thirsty jaws of the soil.

When your sets are planted, you have to loosen the ground
repeatedly about the roots, and make play with your strong
spades, or work the earth by dint of the ploughshare, and
even turn your restiff team between the rows of your vine-
yard ; further, you must get ready smooth canes and spearlike

BOOK II. 328-3S9. 63

wanJs of peeled rods and stakes of the asli, and stout forks,
by whose support the vines may be trained to climb and defy
the winds, and run from story to story along the elm-tops.

In the time of their young growth and their first leaves
you should spare their infancy, and even when the vine-branch
is pushing its way exultingly into the sky, launched into the
void in full career, the tree should not as yet be operated on
by the pruning hook, but the leaves should be gathered by
the fingers and picked off here and there. Tlien when they
have shot up their stems strong and closely wound round the
elms, is the time to lop the leaves and clip the branches ;
before that they shrink from the knife. Then is the time
to set up a strong government and keep down the luxuriance
of the bougha

You must make close hedges too and keep out cattle of
every sort, especially while the branches are young and un-
accustomed to rough living. Besides the danger from cruel
winters and oppressive suns, wild butfaloes and restless goats
are constantly disporting themselves with it. Sheep and
heifers feed on it greedily. Indeed no cold that hoarfrost
ever congealed, no summer that ever smote heavily on the
parching rocks has been so fatal to it as the flocks and the
venom of their sharp tooth, and the wound impressed on the
stem that they have gnawed to the quick. It is in fact for
this crime that the goat appears at all altars as a victim to
Bacchus, when the favourite old plays are brought on the
stage. So the sons of Theseus set up prizes for wit in their
village and cross-road gatherings, and in drunken jollity
jumped over greased bags of goatskin in the velvet meads.
The Ausonian rustics, too, who owe their descent to Troy,
have their sport in artless verses and unbridled laughter, and
put on frightful masks of hollowed bark and call on thee,
Bacchus, in songs of joy, and in thy honour hang up imagea

64 THE GEORGICS.

•with pleasant faces to swing from the tall pine. This makes
every vineyard luxuriate in plenteous increase. There is
fulness in hollow valley and deep hill-gorge, and in every
place to which the god has turned his comely head. Duly
then will we husbandmen give Bacchus the celebration he
claims in the songs our fathers sung, with offerings of loaded
platters and steaming cakes ; led by the horn the consecrated
goat shall be set before the altar, and the dainty entrails shall
be roasted on spits of hazel.

Again, too, there is that other heavy toil of dressing vines,
a drain which is never satisfied ; for the whole soil has to be
broken up every year thrice and again, and the clods to be
crushed incessantly with the hoe's back ; the whole j^lantation
has to be lightened of its foliage. Back upon the husbandman
comes his labour in a round, as the year retraces its own foot-
steps and rolls round upon itself. And now already when the
vineyard has shed its lingering leaves, and the cold north wind
has stripped the woods of their beauty, even thus early a keen
farmer stretches his forethought to meet the coming year, and
with Saturn's hooked fang in hand pursues the forlorn vine,
clipping it as it grows, and prunes it to the shape he will. Bo
the first to dig the ground, the first to cast away and burn the
lopped boughs, the first to carry back the poles under cover,
the last to put in the sickle. Twice a year the leaves encroach
on the vines ; twice a year the crop is overgrown with weeds
and clustering briars ; the one task is as hard as the other.
Praise a large estate as you will, but farm a small one. Tiien,
too, there are the rough twigs of butchers' broom to be cut up
and down the woods, and the water-reed on the river-side, and
the dressing of the untended willow to keep your hand at work.
And now suppose that the vines are tied up, the plantations
have done with the pruning hook, and the last dresser is sing-
ing the song of 'all rows finished,' still there is the earth to be

BOOK II. 339-449. 65

disturbed and the dust raised, and the grapo when fully ripe
has to meet the terrors of Jupiter.

On the other hand olives need no dressing at all ; they claim
nothing from curving hook or tearing rake, Avhen once they
have struck root into tlie soil and weathered the air. The earth
itself, when the crooked fang unlocks it, gives the young
plants moisture, and yields teeming produce by the plough-
share's aid. Do this, and rear the olive to the fatness which
makes it Peace's darling.

Apples again, so soon as they have felt their trunks lirm
under tliem and come into their strength, climb their way
rapidly to tlie sky by their own power, and need no help
from us.

Meanwliile the whole forest is teeming with young life no
less, and tlie birds' wild haunts are ablusli with blood-red
berries. The lucerne is eaten for fodder, the tall wood supplies
pine torches, and night-fires are fed and give light to the house.
And can men stand in doubt about planting and expending
pains 1 Why go through the greater trees ? take but wiUows
and lowly brooms, even they afford leaves for cattle and shelter
for shepherds, hedges for crops and food for honey. Ay, and
what joy to gaze on Cytorus all waving with box, and those
groves of Xarycian pitch ! what joy to look on fields that owe
no debt to the rake, none to aught of man's culture ! Nay,
those barren forests on the top of Caucasus, which tlie gusty
eastern blasts are for ever wasting and whirling, yield each
tree a produce of its own, yield good timber for shipping in
their pines, for houses in their cedars and cypresses. Hence
the farmer turns spokes for wheels, drum-boards fur waggons,
and curved keels for vessels. Twigs are freely yielded by the
W'illow, leaves by the elm, strong spear-shafts by the myrtle
and the cornel, the warrior's friend ; yews are bent into Ituroean
bows. Nor does the smooth linden or the lathc-polislied box

66 THE GEORGICS.

refuse to take sliapo and be hollowed by the sharp steel. The
light alder, too, swims the torrent wave, sped down the
Po ; bees too hive their swarms in the hollow cork-bark and
the trough of the decaying ilex. What of equal account has
come from Bacchus' gifts to man ? Bacchus ! he has even
given occasion to crime ; it was he that tamed with the death-
stroke the Centaurs he had first maddened, their Rhoetus and
their Pholus, and their Hylaeus, menacing the Lapithfe Avitli
his mighty bowl.

0 happy, beyond human happiness, had they but a sense of
their blessings, the husbandmen, for Avhoni of herself, far away
from the shock of arms, Earth, that gives all their due, jiours
out from her soil plenteous sustenance. AA^iat if they have
not a lofty palace with proud gates disgorging from every room
a vast tide of morning visitors ; if they have not doors inlaid
with sumptuous tortoiseshell to gloat on, and tapestry Avitii
fancy work of gold, and bronzes of Epliyra ; if their white
wool is not stained by Assyrian drugs, or their clear oil's
service spoiled by the bark of casia, still they have repose
without care and a life where fraud and pretence are unknown,
with stores of manifold wealth ; they have the liberty of broad
domains, grottos and natural lakes, cool Tempe-like valleys,
and the lowing of oxen, and luxurious slumbers in the shade
are there at their call. There are lawns and dens where wild
beasts hide, and a youth strong to labour and inured to scanty
fare. Here, too, is religion and reverend elders ; among them
it was that Justice left the last print of her feet as she with-
drew from earth.

As for me, first of all I would pray that the charming Muses,
whose minister I am, for the great love that has smitten me,
would receive me graciously, and teach me the courses of the
stars in heaven, the -.'arious eclipses of the sun and the agonies
of the moon, whence come quakings of the earth, what is the

LOOK II. 450-50S. tj

force by wliicli the deep seas swell to the bursting of tlieir
barriers and settle down again on themselves — why the winter
suns make such haste to dip in ocean, or Avhat is the retarding
cause which makes the nights move slowh'. r>ut if I should
be restrained from sounding these depths of nature by cold
sluggish blood stagnating about my heart, then let me delight
in the country and the streams that freshen the valleys — let
me love river and woodland with an unambitious love. 0 for
those plains — for Spercheius and Taygete, the revel ground of
Spartan maidens ! 0 for one to set me down in the cool glens
of Ilrcmus, and shelter me beneath the giant shade of its
boughs !

Happy the man who has gained a knowledge of the causes
of things, and so trampled under foot all fears and fate's
relentless decree, and the roar of insatiate Acheron. Yet not
the less blest is he who has won the friendship of the rural
gods. Pan, and old Silvanus, and the sisterhood of Nymphs.
He is not moved by honours that the people confer, or the
purple of empire, or civil feuds, that make brothers swerve
from brothers' duty ; or the Dacian coming do"^^•n from the
Hister, his sworn ally ; no, nor by the great Roman state and
the death throes of subject kingdoms : he never felt the pang
of pity for the poor, or of envy for the rich. The fruits which
the arms of the trees present, which the country yields cheer-
fully of its own sweet will, these he gathers ; the iron rigour
of law, the mad turmoil of the forum, the public archives, he
has looked on none of them. Others are disturbincr the
darkness of the deep with their oars, rushing on the sword's
point, winding their way into courts and kings' chambers.
One is carrying havoc into a city and its wretched homes, all
that he may have a gem to drink out of, and Tyrian purple to
sleep on ; another is hoarding up wealth, and lying on the
burying-place of his gold ; one is staring in rapt admiration

68 THE GEORGICS.

at the Kostra; another, open-moutlied, is swept away Ly tlio
plaudits of commons and senate as they roll, aye, again and again
along the benches ; men are bathed in their brothers' blood,
and glory in it ; they exchange the home and hearth-stone of
their love for a life of exile, and seek out a country that lies
under another sun. Meanwhile the husbandman has dis-
placed the soil witli his crooked plough-share — thence comes
his year's employment — thence comes sustenance for his
country and his own little homestead alike, and for his herds
of oxon and the bullocks that have servc.l him so well.
The stream of plenty knows no pause ; the year is always
teeming either with apples or with animal produce, or the
sheaf of Ceres' corn-ears, loading the furrows with increase,
and bursting the barns. "Winter is come : the berry of
Sicyon is being bruised in the oil presses ; see how fat the
swine come off from their meal of acorns ; there are arbutes
in the woods for the picking, or for a change, autumn is
dropping its various j^roduce at his feet, and high up on the
sunny rocks the vintage is being baked into ripeness. Then,
too, there are his sweet children ever hanging on his lips —
his virtuous household keeps the tradition of purity ; the
cows are letting down their milky udders, and fat kids in
grass luxuriant as they, are engaging together horn against
horn. He, the master, keeps holidays, and stretched at ease
on the grass, with a turf-fire in the middle, and a merry
company wreathing the bowl, calls on thee, god of the Avino
press, with a libation, and sets up on the elm a mark for
spearing matches among the herdsmen, and they strip their
bodies, hard as iron, for a country wrestle. Such were the
arts of cultivation practised of old by the Sabines, and by
Remus and his brother ; such, in fact, the life in which
Etruria grew to strength, and in Avhich Rome has become
tlie glory of the earth, embracing seven hills Avith the wall

BOOK 11. 5CS-543. 6;

of a single city. Nay, in clays before the rule of the Cretan
king, before our race in its impiety began to regale itself on
slaughtered bullocks— this was the life that was led on earth
by Saturn, monarch of the golden age — days when the blast
of the trumpet and the hammering of the sword on the
stubborn anvil were sounds unknown.

Lut we have traversed a tract 'of boundless length and
breadth, and it is high time to unyoke the steaming necks
of our horses.

( :o )

BOOK II r.

Of thee, too, miglity Pales, shall be my song, and of liiee,
the poet's worthy theme, the swain from Amphrysus' bank —
of you also, ye woods and streams of Lycaeus. Other subjects,
which once could have laid on the idle mind the spell of poesy,
are all of them hackneyed now. Vfho knows not Eurystheus,
hardest of masters, or the altars of Busiris, Avhom never tongue
praised 1 Who has not told the tale of the lost boy Hylas,
of Latona and her Delos, of Hippodamia and Pelops, hero of
the ivory shoulder and keen charioteer ? I must essay a
course by which I too may rise from the ground, and ride in
triumph over the heads of mankind. Yes, I will be the first,
if but lip hold out, to dislodge the Aonian muses from their
mountain home, and carry them with me in my victorious pro-
gress into my native land. I will be the first to bring back
to thee, my Mantua, the palms of Idumea, and on the broad
green sward I will build a temple of marble by the water's
side, where Mincius trails his great breadth along in lazy
windings, and fringes his banks with soft rushes as he goes.
In the shrine I will have Csesar, the tutelar god of the temple.
In his honour I, the hero of the day, in full pomp of Tyriau
purple, will have driven by the river's bank a hundred four-
horse cars. My fame shall draw all Greece away from Alpheus
and the grove of Molorchus, to contend in the footrace and
with the gloves of raw hide, while I with stripped olive leaves
wreathed round my brow will ofTer gifts at the altar. The

BOOK III. 1-5 1. Ji

time iis come — "svliat joy, to lead the stately procession to the
temple, and see the bullocks slaughtered, or to mark on the
stage how the fronts turn round and the scene withdraws,
and how the embroidered Britons lift that grand purple curtain
from the ground ! On the temple doors I will have sculptured,
all of gold and solid ivory, the battle of the Ganges, and the
conquering arms of our own Quirinus ; ay, and there, in full
tide of war, swelling high, shall be seen the Nile, and columns
built high with sailors' brass, I will throw in, too, Asia's
vanquished cities, and Niphates with his shattered crest, and
the Parthian, who stakes his all on flight and treacherous
volleys from behind, and those two trophies torn from foes at
the two ends of earth — those two nations led in triumph from
the two coasts of ocean. I will set up, too, Parian marble in
breathing statues, the lineage of Assaracus, and the great
names of the house that comes do\ni from Jove, old father
Tros, and the builder of Troy, the Cynthian god — while Envy
shall be seen, liiding her miserable head from the Furies and
the gloomy flood of Cocytus, and the snakes that coil round
Ixion, the enormous wheel, and the never baffled stone.
INIeanwhile, pursue we the Dryads' woods and glades, virgin
as they, the hard task that you have laid on me, my Maecenas.
Uninspired by you, no lofty work can my mind essay. Come
along — no loitering or delay — here is Citha.'ron calling us in
full cry, and the hounds of Taygete, and Epidaurus Avith her
well-trained horses — a cry rebounding in echoes from the
applauding woods. But erelong I will gird myself to sing of
those fiery fights of Cffisar, and Avaft his name in glory down
a length of centuries, long as those which separate the cradle
of Tithonus from Cresar himself.

AVhether a man in admiring ambition of the piize of the
Olympic palm, breed horses, or breed bullocks, that shall be
strong for ploughing, let his first care be to choose dams of

72 THE GEORGICS.

tlie mould reqiiirecL That cow is best shaped that is grim-
looking, with an ugly liead, an abundance of neck, and
dewlaps hanging down from jaw to leg ; with no end to length
of her side, and everything large about her down to her foot,
her horns curved inwards and her ears under them hairy.
'Not should I dislike to see her dappled with spots of white
or rebelling against the yoke, and sometimes savage with her
horns, her countenance approaching a bull's, tall altogether,
and, as she moves, sweeping her footsteps with the tip of her
tail. The acre for service to the child-birth "oddess and the

O O

just claims of wedlock is over before ten years, as it begins
after four ; in the rest of life there is n() aptness for breeding,
no strength for the plough. Meantime, while the luxuriance
of your cattle's youth is still unspent give your males liberty ;
be the first to send in your herds, and supply race after race
by successive propagation. Poor mortals that we are, our
brightest days of life are ever the first to fly ; on creeps disease
and the gloom of age, and suffering sweeps us off, and the
ruthless cruelty of death. Constantly there will be those
whose weakly mould you would gladly exchange ; as constantly
recruit your stock ; and that you may not deplore losses when
too late, prevent them, and every year pick for your herd a
young supply.

Your breed of horses, too, must be chosen with no less care.
!Mark me, and let those whom you mean to rear as the pro-
pagators of their line have even from their first youth the
advantage of your special pains. See, from the day of his
birth, a colt of a noble family, how high he steps in the
pasture, and with what spring he brings down his legs.
Fearlessly he leads the way, is the first to brave the threaten-
ing flood and trust his weight on the untried bridge — no terror
for him have idle alarms. Look at the height of his neck, the
sliarp cut of his liead, the shortness of his belly, the plumpness

BOOK III. 51-107. 73

of his back, and the luxuriance of the firm flesh about that

chest which swells so with life. For colour, your best are

bay and blue-grey ; the wliite and the dun are tlie worst.

Xow, if he happens to hear the sound of arms in the distance,

no standing still for him ; he pricks his ears, his whole body

quivers, he snorts, and works in his nostrils the gathered fire.

His mane is thick, and as he tosses it, rests on his right

shoulder. The spine which runs between his loins is hollow ;

his hoof goes deep into the ground, and has the deep ring of

solid horn. Such was the steed that learnt to obey the rein

of Aniyclgean Pollux, Cyllarus, and those of which Greek song

has preserved the memory, tlie horses of Mars, and the pair

of the mighty Achilles ; ay, such was the great god, Saturn,

when quick as lightning he flung his mane over that horse's

neck of his as he heard liis wife's step, and as he ran, thrilled

through the lieight and depth of Peliou with liis clear sharp

neigh.

Yet even him too, when the burden of disease or the

increasing slowness of years makes him fail, you must shut

up at home, nor suffer his old age to be a disgrace ; for an

old horse is a cold lover. ^

* * ♦ ♦ ♦

Your first care then will be in each case to take note of
the horse's spirit, and of his age ; passing thence to observe
the rest of his character, the breed of his sire and dam, and
how keen the pang of defeat or the thrill of victory. Who
has not watched the headlong speed of a racer, the chariots
swallowing the ground before them as they pour along in a
torrent from their floodgates, wlien the drivers' youthful hopes
are at their height, and the bounding heart is drained by each
eager pulsation ? There are they, Avith their ever ready lash
circling in the air, bending forward to let the reins go ; on flies
' Tl^.e MS. is mterrupted for three lines. — [Ed.]

74 THE GEORGICS.

the wlieel, swift and hot as fire ; now tliey ride low, now they
seem to tower aloft, shooting through the void air, and rising
against the sky ; no stint, no stay, while the yellow saml
mounts up in a cloud, and each is sprinkled with the foam and
breath of those behind him : that is what ambition can do,
that is the measure of their zeal for success. Erichthonius
was the first who rose to the feat of coupling a car and four
horses together, standing erect above the wheels that swept
him on in triumph. The bridle and the ring were a present
from the Lapithaj of Mount Pelion, who mounted the steed's
back, and taught the horseman, arms and all, to spurn the
ground and complicate his haughty paces. Each task is
arduous alike ; for each tlie trainer looks out for a young
one, with a high spirit and a fleet foot ; though the veteran
may have turned the foe to flight in many a battle, thougli
his birthplace be Epirus or good Mycenae itself, and the founder
of his line no less than Neptune.

These points first noted, they are all zeal as the time draws
near, and bestow their whole pains to swell out with firm fat
the horse Avhom they have chosen as the leader of the herd
and named as its lord. They cut for him flowering herbage
and ply him with springs and with corn, lest he prove unequal
to the task he loves, and the sire's insufficiency be reflected
in a weak offspring. But the herd itself, of set purpose they
bring do'wn and make lean, and when the first promptings of
love are felt, refuse them fodder and keep them off from run-
ning streams. Often too they shake them with galloping and
tire them in the sun, when the threshing floor is groaning
heavily with the pounding of the corn, and when the empty
chaff is tgssed to the rising Aveitern breeze.

Kow the care of the sires begins to w'ane, and that of the
dams to take its place. "WHien the mares' time is out and
tliey go about in foal, let no one suffer tliem to pull in harness

BOOK III. 107-166. 75

to a lieavy waggon, or clear the road -with a high leap, scour
the plain with the speed of fire, or breast a violent torrent
AVide lawns are the places for them to graze in, and the sides
of brimming rivers, where they may have moss and a bank of
the greenest grass, and the shelter of a cave, and the shadow
of a rock flung full over the ground. About the groves of
Silarus and the oaks that make Alburnum so green, swarms
an insect whose Latin name is anilus, rendered in Greek by
oestrus, a pest with a harsh loud hum, which scares the cattle
and makes them fly right and left through the woodland, while
the air is stunned and maddened with their bellowings, thu
air and the woodland and the banks of Tanager which runs
dry in the sun. This was the monster of old with which
Juno wreaked that fearful vengeance of hers, the scourge which
slio devised for the heifer of Inachus, and so you too — fur
mid-day heat makes its persecutions more savage — should
shield your teeming herds from its sting, letting them graze
only when the sun is just up or the stars are ushering in the
night.

After delivery, the farmer's whole care is transferred to the
calves. At once he brands them with tokens and names to
mark the race, distinguishing those whom he chooses to rear
for breeding, those whom he prefers to reserve for the altar's
sacred uses, and those Avho are meant to break up the ground.^
The rest of the cattle are grazing, as well they may, wherever
the grass is green. Meantime do you take those whom you
would train to the love and service of the land, school them
while they are yet calves, and set out on the path of dis-
cipline while the youthful mind is docile and the time of life
pliable. Let loose rings of slender osier be their first collars.

* This phrase stands in the M.S. for : —

Aut scindere terram,
Et campum horrentem fractis iuvertere glebis. — [Ed.]

76 THE GEORGICS.

Then, when the freeborn neck has grown familiar with bondage,
nse these necklaces as the means of yoking them together in
a well-matched pair, and make them step side by side. Ly
this time too let them have an empty waggon often and often
dragged at their heels, just printing the wheel-rut on the
siTrface-dust. That done, you should next have the rattle of
the beeclien axle, as it pulls against a good stout weight, and
a copper-plated pole to draw the wheels thereto attached.
Meantime, ere their youth is broken in, you will not only
give them grass or starveling willow leaves and marsh sedge,
but standing corn plucked by the hand ; and again, when
your cows have just been bearing, do not, as our fathers did,
force them to fill the snowy milk pail, but let them spend
their udders entire on the offspring they love.

But if your bent is rather towards battle and fierce brigades,
or to glide at Pisa by Alpheus' waters on wheels smooth as
they, and in the grove of Jupiter drive the flying car, learn
that a horse's first task is to bear the sight of martial fury
and the harness of war, the sound of the clarion, the long-
drawn rumbling of the wheel, and the jingle of the bridle as
he stands in the stall ; keener, too, and keener should grow
liis pleasure in his master's caressing voice, and more intense
the luxury as he hears his neck patted. To this he should
be inured from the moment of his weaning from his mother's
milk ; ever and anon too he should submit his head to bands
of soft osier, ere his strength is set, or his nerves stcadj'', or
his hold on life firm. But when three summers are past and
the fourth arrived, let him begin at once to scour the ring,
his paces ringing a regular time, and his legs successively
gathered into a curve, and let him show that he is working
against his will ; then, then let him challenge the winds to -
a race, flying along over the open spaces, as if he had no
bridle in his mouth, and scarcely setting his footprint on the

BOOK III. 167-225. 77

eanil's siirface — as vlien from polar climes the north ■wind
stoops in full force, driving heforo him the storms of Scythia
and the rainless clouds ; the tall waving corn and the billowy
plains are rufiled by the first light breeze, and a rustling is
heard in the forest tops, and the long waves come pusliing
to the shore — on he flies, on wings that sweep land and sea
alike. A horse like this will be seen all sweat at the goal
of Elis and its mighty circles, spurting out flakes of bloody
foam, or will draw the Belgian car with a grace, wiili that
gentle neck of his. Then at last let their mighty bulk bo
distended at will with the fattening corn mess after the
breaking-in is well over — for before, such food will raise their
spirit too high, and make them refuse to bear the education
of the jiliant lash, or obey the sharp curb.

Lut there is nothing that tells more towards invigorating
their strength,' than to shield them with all your care from
the stings of secret passion, whether your preference is for
the service of oxen or of horses. To that end, the bull is
sent into distant exile in solitary pastures, with a mountain
before and a broad river between him and his home ; or is
shut in close confinement in his well-stored crib. For the
female keeps insensibly preying on his strength, and con-
suming it by the very sight of her, and leaves him no thought
for forest shelter or grassy food. Xay, those andearing charms
of hers often drive her haughty lovers to use their horns for
settling their rival claims. There she is grazing in Sila's
mighty wood, the lovely heifer ; they are in the thick of battle,
dealing wounds with all their force, now one, now another ; the
black blood is bathing their frames, and pushing horn meets
pushing horn with loud bellowing, that echoes through the
woods and the length of the firmament. Kor, when aU is over,
are the combatants wont to stall together ; the beaten cham-
pion retires to distant banishment in an unkno'mi clime, witli

78 THE GEORGICS.

many a groan for his disgrace and tlie cruel wounds of liis
haughty conqueror, and many for his unredressed loss, the loss
of his love — a wistful look at his stall, and the king has quitted
his ancestral domain. So now all his care is to practise
his powers — on the hard rocks the whole niglit long he
makes his unpillowed bed — his food the bristly leaf and
the pointed sedge ; and he proves himself, and learns to
throw his rage into his horns by butting at a tree's trunk,
and assails the winds with his blows, and spurns the flying
sand in prelude for the fray. Then, when his powers are
mustered and his strength recruited, he raises the standard,
and comes headlong down on his oblivious foe — like a billow
that begins to whiten far away in the mid sea, and draws up
from the main its bellying curve — like it, too, when rolling to
the shore, it roars terrific among the rocks, and bursts in bulk
as huge as their parent cliflf — while the water below boils up
in foaming eddies, and discharges from its depths the murky
sand.

JSTay, it is the wont of the whole race of men and beasts all
the world through, the tribes of the waters, cattle, and gay-
coloured birds, to rush headlong into this fiery madness ; love
fastens on all alike. At no other season has the lioness for-
gotten her cubs, and roamed the plains in fiercer mood ; never
has the monstr^s bear spread death and havoc more widely
through the forest ; then is the wild boar savage, then the
tigress at her worst. Ah ! it is bad wandering then alone in
the Libyan waste. Mark you not how horses thrill through
their whole frame, if but a scent conveys to them the breath
they know so Avell ? Ko power to check them now has the
rider's rein or the lash plied with fury, or rocks and beetling
crags, or rivers crossing their path, tearing up mountains and
hurling them down the tide. See ! there is the great Sabine
boar, rushing along and sharpening his tusks, pounding the

BOOK III. 226-2SS. 79

eaitU before liim with liis feet, rubbing liis sides against the
tree, and in this way and that hardening his shoulders against
wounds, "What of the youth, whose marrow the fierceness of
love has turned to flame 1 The storm has broken loose, and
tlie night is dark, yet he swims the troubled sea ; over his
head thunders heaven's huge gate, and the waves that dash on
the rocks shout in his ears ; in vain ; nor can the tears of his
parents call him back, nor the maiden of his love, whose cruel
death must follow his. AVhat of Bacchus' spotted lynxes, and
the fierce tribes of wolves and dogs ? "What of the fight Avliich
unwarlike stags are known to show ? Them I pass by ; for
indeed above all others conspicuous is the rage of the mares —
such was the boon with which Venus' grace endowed them,
what time Glaucus had his limbs devoured by his Potnian
chariot-steeds. On they are drawn by love, over Gargarus, over
the roar of Ascanius ; the mountain they scale, the river they
swim; and soon as ever the spark touches their craving marrow,
in spring chiefl}', for it is in spring that heat revisits their
frames, they stand all of them with their faces turned west-
ward on the cliff-top, and catch the light-floating breezes ; and
oft, without wedlock of any sort, impregnated by the wind,
over hill and rock and dipping vale, they fly here and there
— not towards thy birthplace, Eurns, or the Sun's, but to
north, or north-west, or where the south, blackest of winds,
is born, to sadden heaven's face with his rain and chill. Then
it is there trickles from them a thick fluid, which the shep-
herds rightly call horse-madness — horse-madness, which fell
step-dames have oft gathered up, to form a mess with herbs
and charms as baleful.

Eut time is flying, flying past recall, while we in fond
interest are making our circuit from point to point. Enough
of herds, another part of our charge is yet to do — the treat-
ment of woolly flocks and hairy goats. Here is a task indeed ;

8o THE GEORGICS.

liere fix your hopes of renown, ye "brave sons of the soil. For
myself, I too am well assured how hard the struggle will he
for language to plant her standard here, and invest a theme so
slender with her own peculiar glory ; hut there is a rapturous
charm that whirls me along over Parnassus' lonely steeps — a
joy in surmounting heights where no former wheel has worn
a way, no easy slope leads down to the Castalian spring.

'Now, dread Pales, now for a louder and loftier strain. On
my inauguration I proclaim that the sheep crop their grass in
soft-laid sheds till summer, in due course, conies hack with its
leaves, and that plenty of straw and handfuls of fern he strewn
on the hard ground under them, lest the chill of the ice harm
your delicate cattle, and engender scah and foot-rot, to your
disgrace and disgust. Passing thence, I order that the goats
have good store of arbute leaves and supplies of fresh running
Avater, and that their sheds he placed away from the wind,
full fronting the winter sun in his mid-day quarter, at the
time when the cold bearer of the water urn is setting and
sprinkling the skirts of the departing year. Yes, our goats
should be shielded with care as serious as our sheep ; nor will
their service stand you in less stead, high as is the rate of
exchange of Milesian wool engrained deep with Tyrian scarlet.
Prom them comes a more swarming progeny, from them milk
in plenteous abundance ; the fuller the froth of your morning's
pail from the dry-drained teat, the more luxuriant will flow
the stream from the same udder when pressed at night. Nor
is this all — the he-goat of Cinyps has his beard and hoary
chin, aye, all his shaggy hair, clipped for the use of the camp,
or to cover some poor shivering seaman. For their food, ihcj
graze among the forests and the summits of Lycseus, among
stiff prickly bushes and brakes that cling to the heights, and
of themselves, with never-failing memory, they come back
home, showing their young the way, and just heave their fidl-

BOOK III. 288-3,8. 81

charged udders over the threshoM. Spend all your i:)aiiis
then in fencing them from ice and sleety blasts, considering
how few their calls on the care of man ; give them provender
and twigs for food with luxuriant hand, and put no lock on
your hayloft the whole winter through.

But when the zephyr's call is heard, and summer's genial
smile sends both flocks alike into mountain lawn and mountain
pasture, then let us be ready with the first dawn of the morn-
ing star to batten on the cool fresh fields Avhile daybreak is
young, Avhile the grass is hoar, and the dew on the tender
herbage is most grateful to cattle. Afterwards, when a sense
of thirst crowds on the fourth hour of the day, and the cicalas
split the woods with their plaintive note, bid your flocks stand
at the Avell-side, or by the deep pool, to drink water running
through oaken troughs ; but in mid-day heat let them hunt
out a shady vale, where, belike, Jove's mighty oak, strong in
time-honoured power, spreads its enonnous boughs ; or where
the grove, black with countless ilexes, reposes in hallowed
shadow. Then once more give them the thin clear stream,
once more feed them till set of sun, when the cool of eve
allays the air, and the dcAvs now falling from the moon revive
the lawns, and the kingfisher sings along the shore, the gold-
finch through the brake.

Why should my yerse take you along with the shepherds
of Libya, their pastures, and their camps, settlements of thin-
spread huts ? Often, day and night together, and a whole
month in succession, their cattle graze, travelling on into a
length of desert, without shelter of any sort, so vast is the
extent of jilain. The African herdsman carries with him
all his goods — house, and hearth, and arms ; his dog from
Amyclee, and his quiver from Crete — just as the keen Eoman,
when, armed and equipped in Roman fashion, he makes his
march under his tyrannous load, and, ere he is looked for,

F

82 THE GEORGICS.

has his camp ready pitched, and is drawn up before liis foe.
AMiat a change to the tribes of Scythia and the water of
Mseotis — to the scene where Ister rolls tuvbidly his yellow
sands, and Rhodope stretches herself full under the pole, and
turns again ! There they keep their herds shut up in stalls —
never a blade of grass is seen on the plain, never a leaf on
the tree ; but the land lies a formless mass of snowy heaps
and deep ice, and rises seven ells high. Every day is winter,
every air the north wind's frosty breath. Xay, the sun never
dispels the wan shades of night, not when he mounts his car
and scales the height of the sky, nor when he laves his head-
long wheels in ocean's glowing flood. Sudden crusts form on
tlie running stream, and the water can now support on its
V)ack the iron-bound wdieel — the w'ater that once welcomed
t;hips, and now welcomes the broad wain. Coppers are daily
split, and clothes congeal on the back, and clear-flowing wine
is chopped wdth hatchets ; whole pools are turned to solid
ice, and stiffening icicles harden on the untrimmed beard.
jMeantime, as if there were no frost, snow is falling from all
the sky : the cattle perish — great hulks of oxen stand with
frost all about them — stags massed into a troop are numbed
by a weight not their own, and hardly lift the tips of their
horns above it. No need of letting in dogs on them, hunt-
ing them with nets, or scaring them with the terror of the
crimson feather ; as they are pushing in vain with their
chests at the mountain of snow, men kill them weapon in
hand, butcher them bellowing loud, and carry them off with
shouts of triumpli. For the people, they keep careless holiday
in caves delved deep under the earth, with store of timber,
nay, whole elms pushed up to the hearth, and heaped on
the blaze — there they lengthen out the night in games, and
jovially imitate draughts of the vine with fermented grains
and acid service-juice. Such is the life of that ungoverned

BOOK III. 348-411. gj

race of men ■wLo dwell exposed, to the seven HyperLorean
stars, ever buffeted by the east winds of a Khipsean sky,
ever sheltering their frames with the rough tawny coats of
beasts.

If wool be your care, first remove the prickly jungle, burrs,
caltrops, and the like ; avoid luxuriant pastures, and at once
choose flocks with white, soft fleeces. But the ram, however
white himself, Avho has but a black tongue under his mouth's
moist roof, set aside, lest he blur the fleece of the young
lambs with dark spots, and look about the teeming plain till
you find another. It was thus, with a present of avooI, white
as snow, if we may trust the tale, that Pan, Arcadia's patron,
beguiled thee, bright goddess of the Moon, calling thee under
the tall forest trees ; nor didst thou slight the call.

But if milk is the farmer's passion, let him with his own
hand carry to the stalls lucerne and lotus in plenty, and
salted herbage. Hence they love the water more, and have
their udders more distended, and reproduce in their milk a
hidden flavour of salt. Many separate the kid from its dam
when fresh dropped, and at once front its mouth with an
iron-pointed muzzle. The milk they have taken at dawn and
in hours of daylight they churn at night ; the milk taken at
twilight and at sundown they carry away in baskets at day-
break (it is a shepherd's visit to town), or sprinkle it spar-
ingly with salt, and lay it by for winter,

Nor let your dogs be the last thing thought of ; but bring
up together swift Spartan hounds and a keen Molossian on
fattening whey. Never, with them to guard you, need you
quake for your stalls at a nightly robber or an invasion of
wolves, or at Iberian outlaws in your rear. Often, too, you
will chase the wild ass, so quickly scared, and hark your
hounds on the hare, your hounds on the doe. Often you
will rouse the Avild boar, and dislodge him from his woody

84 THE GEORGICS.

lair, Laying and driving; and along the steep mountains, in
full cry, force into your net an enormous stag.

Be taught also to burn fragrant cedar in your stalls, and
Avitli tlio steam of the Syrian gum chase away noisome
serpents. Often under sheds long undisturbed you find that
a viper, ill to handle, has been lurking, escaped in fear from
the light of day ; or a cobra, fond of haunting the shelter and
the shade, and scattering its venom on the cattle — cruel scourge
of oxen — has nestled in the ground. Quick, shepherds, quick,
■with your stones and staves — his terrors are rising, his throat
swollen and hissing — smite him down. See! he is flying,
his timid head already deep in the ground, while his writhing
body and the Avaving line of his tail are untwisting them-
selves, and the final coil is dragging its slow spires along.
Then, too, there is that deadly serpent in the gorges of
Calabria, with breast erect and wreathed scaly back, flecked
with great spots throughout his belly's length ; who, while
tliere are any rivers welling from their fountains, and while
the earth is wet with the moist spring and the rainy south,
haunts the still waters, and, dAvelling on the banks there,
Avith fish and clamorous frogs satiates the glutton craving of
his black swollen maw. Then, after the pool is burnt to the
bottom, and the earth is gaping with heat, he leaps to land,
and, rolling eyes of fire, carries death into the fields, savage with
thirst, and maddened by the sunstroke. May it never enter
my mind to indulge the pleasure of open-air sleep, or to lie
on the grass on the mountain's wood-grown ridge, at the
moment when he, his skin shed, in new life and in the
beauty of youth, leaving his young at home, hatched or in
the sliell, gathers himself up, towering to the sun, and flashes
in his mouth his three-forked tongue.

About diseases, too, I will tell you, their causes and their
symptoms. Sheep are tormented by a noisome scab, when

BOOK III. 1 12-47 3.. S

3

the cold rain aiul lioar-frost of cruel Avintcr have sunk deep
into their flesh ; or when, after sheaving, sweat unwaslied has
chmg to the skin, or rough bminljles have wounded the body.
For fear of tliis, shepherds Lathe tlie whole flock with fresh
streams, and the ram is plunged into the flood, his avooI all
wet about him, and once launched, goes floating down the
river ; or they anoint the body after shearing with bitter
niother-of-oil, and mix scum of silver, and native sulphur,
and pitch from Ida, and wax softened by oil, and sea onions
and potent hellebore, and black bitumen. Lut never is the
fortune of the distemper so gracious as when a man has the
nerve to open the mouth of the sore with the knife : the
mischief keeps thriving, and lives upon concealment, while
the shepherd is refusing to apply a healing hand to the
wound, or sits praying the gods to send more favourable prog-
nostics. Moreover, when the pain has pierced to the bleating
suflerer's bones, and is raging there, and a parching fever is
jireying on its limbs, it has been found well to carry off the
flery heat by opening a vein full throbbing with blood at the
bottom of the foot, as is the wont of the lii^ltie and the keen
Gelonian, when he flies to Ehodope and to the steppes of the
CJctse, and drinks milk curdled Avith mare's blood. If you
observe a sheep often seeking refuge in the luxurious shade,
or indolently browsing the tops of the herbage, lagging after
vou the last, or lying down in the middle of the field while
grazing, and at last retiring aU alone before the late approach
of night, check the evil at once with the knife, ere the dire
contagion spread through the unwary multitude. Not so fast
sweeps a Avbirlwind over the sea, with a storm in its train, as
the thousand distempers that seize on cattle. It is not single
bodies here and there that the plague bears off, but the whole
of a summer's fold all in a moment — the flock of the future
with that wliich now is — an entire tribe, root and branch.

X

S5 THE GEORGICS.

Let him become my witness who chances to see the skiey Alps,
and the hillside forts of Xoricum, and the fields of lapydian
Timavus, even as they now are, after time has done so much
— the shepherds' domain unpeopled, and the lawns desolate
through their lencrth and breadth.

o o

Here once, from a distemper of the sky, a season of piteous
ruin sot in, glowing Avith all the furnace-heat of autumn, and
swept off to death the whole race of beasts, tame and wild ;
tainted the pools of water, and infected the herbage with
venom. Nor was the path of death straight and without turn-
ing : but after fiery thirst, coursing through every vein, had
drawn the poor limbs close together, there was a fresh overflow
of fluid moistures, absorbing into itself piece by piece the whole
bony frame, dissolved by pestilence. Often, in the middle of
a sacrifice, as the victim was standing at the altar, and the
snowy band of the woollen fillet was being placed round its
brow, it fell dying between the attendants' faltering hands ;
or if the steel of the priest had given any an earlier death,
that victim's entrails make no blaze on the altar they load,
nor can the prophet learn from them responses to the votary's
questions. A thrust from beneath scarcely stains the knives
Avith blood, and the thin gore but just darkens the surface of
the sand. Thus you might see calves dying everywhere among
luxuriant herbage, or yielding the lives they love at the well-
filled crib they cannot taste. Thus madness comes on the
dog, man's playfellow, and a panting cough shakes the diseased
swine, and stops the breath in their swollen throats. See !
he droops, his occupation gone, his pasture neglected, the
victorious steed ; he recoils from running streams, and beats
the ground rapidly with his hoof ; his ears drop, a fitful sweat
breaks out on them, striking cold as death draws on ; tho
skin is dry, and when touched, meets the hand with hardness.
Such are the signs that go before death in the early days of

BOOK III. 474-531. S7

the malady ; but when in its advance it begins to grow fierce,
then at last the eyes are ablaze, the breath deep drawn, and
sometimes groaningly heavy ; they distend their flanks to the
bottom with a long-heaved sob, black ,blood trickles from their
nostrils, and their obstructed jaws are closed on a roughened
tongue. It was found well to drench them with the wine-
god's streams, through a horn placed in the mouth ; this seemed
the one way of life to the dying ; soon, that too was seen
to lead to death : they were revived by madness into fever
heat, and, even in the weakness of dissolution (grant, ye gods,
Ijetter things to us your worshippers, and reserve tliis delusion
for our foes), with their own bare teeth mangled their own
rent flesla. Look there — the bull, smoking under the plough-
share's stubborn weight, falls in a heap, disgorges from his
mouth blood mingled with foam, and heaves a last sigh. The
ploughman moves sadly away, unyokes the surviving bullock,
itself mourning for its brother's fate, and leaves the work half
done, and the plough still buried in the soil. The tall forest's
shade, the soft meadowgrass, cannot quicken that failing heart —
no, nor the river that tumbles down the stones, purer than amber,
and hurries to the plain : the flank is relaxed from end to end ;
a stupor weighs the heavy eyelids down, and the weight of the
neck bears it drooping to the earth. What profit has he of his
labour and his good deeds to man ? what of all the heavy clods
that he has upturned with the share ? Yet he and such as he
have never known the poison of the wine-god's Massic gifts,
nor of feast succeeding feast; they feed on leaves, on the diet of
undressed herbage. Their cups are clear springs and rivers that
freshen as they run ; and care never comes to break short their
healthful slumbers. Then and then only m that country — *

* Here the MS. of this part of the translation ceases abruptly. I
cannot find that the third Georj^'ic was ever completed by Professor
Conington. — [Ed.]

( 88 )

EOOK IV.

I AM now in clue order to tell of Heaven's gift, the honey of
the sky. To this, as to the rest of my task, Maecenas, vouch-
safe your regard. A marvellous exhibition of things slight
in themselves — high-souled leaders, and the life of a whole
nation, its character, its genius, its races, its battles, shall all
be successively unfolded to you. It is a small field for labour,
but far from small is the glory to be reaped by one, if there
be such, whose evil star leaves him free, and whose invoking
voice is heard of Apollo.

First of all the bees must have a settlement and a station
found them, in a spot to which the winds have no access —
for the Avinds will not let them carry their food home — and
where no sheep or wanton kids are likely to trample on the
flowers, no wandering heifer to brush the dew from the meadow
and beat down the rising herbage. Nor let the speckled
lizard's scaly back be seen in their precious homesteads, nor
the apiaster nor other birds ; no, nor Procne, with the marks
of her bloody hands still on her breast — for they spread havoc
through the domain far and wide, and catching its owners on
the wing, carry them in their mouths to their ungentle nest-
lings a delicate morsel. But let there be a clear spring close
at hand, and a pool fringed with green moss, and a thread of
water coursing through the grass, and let a palm-tree or a tall
wild olive throw its shade over the vestibule, that, when the
infant swarm marches out under their new kings in the spring

BOOK IV. 1-5 1. ^9

tliat they love, and tlie youth issuing from the comb disport
themselves at will, there may be a bank hard by, to tempt
them to retire from the heat, and a tree in the way to keep
them long under its leafy shelter. Into tlie middle of tlie
water, whether it be sluggish and standing, or fresh and run-
ning, throw willows crosswise and liuge stones, that there
may be frequent bridges for them to settle on and spread
their wings to the summer sun, in case the east wind should
liave sprinkled them while pausing in their flight, or sent
ihem headlong into Neptune's lap. All about let there be a
luxuriant growth of green ca<ia, and wild thyme with its
spreading perfume, and abundance of strongly-scented savory,
and beds of violets to drink in the irrigation of the spring.
As for your hives, whether they be stitcheil, of hollow cork,
or woven, of [)liant osier, let them have narrow entrances —
for in cold the wintry air congeals the honey, while heat
melts it and sets it free. Each is a tyrant that the bees have
alike to dread ; nor is it in vain that with emulous zeal they
smear the tiny crevices in their dwellings with wax, and fill
up the orifices with the pollen of flowers, and keep a store of
glue laid up for that very purpose, more tenacious than bird-
lime or than the pitch of Phrygian Ida, Often, too, in holes
underground, if fame speak truth, they have made them a
Avarm home, and have been found deep in the hollow of a
])orous rock, and in the cavern of a decayed tree. Neverthe-
less do you give their crannied chambers the warmth of a
smooth mud-plaister, and strew them with a sprinklin'T of
leaves. Do not sufi"er a yew tree near their dwelling, nor
roast scarlet crabs at the fire, nor put any faith in a deep
swampy place, or where the mire smells strong, or where the
hollow rock rings with the impact of sound, and the reflec-
tion of the voice strikes it and rebounds acrain.

For the rest, when the golden sun has driven winter to hide

90 THE GEORGICS.

his vanquished head under the earth, and thrown open the
gates of heaven by the force of summer's rajs, immediately
they are ranging lawn and woodland through, cropping the
hright-hued flowers, and sipping the streamlet's brim with
their tiny mouths. Hence it is that with a delicious sense of
unknown sweetness they cherish their nestling young ; hence
it is that with workman's skill they forge fresh wax and
mould the clammy honey. So then when looking up you see
the body of bees issuing at last from their prison towards the
sky and all afloat in the clear summer-tide, and wonder at the
murky cloud which the wind is swaying to and fro, mark
them well ; they always make for fresh water and sheltering
foliage. There then sprinkle the odours I prescribe, bruised
balm, and the Avax-flower, mean weed though it be, and raise
a tinkling noise, and beat the cymbals of the mighty mother
all around : unbidden they will settle on the medicated spot,
unbidden they will nestle, as is their wont, in the furthest
corners of their new cradle.

But if it is for battle that they have left the hive — for oft
when there are two kings strife visits them with her dire con-
vulsions, and at once you may learn even from a distance the
temper of the masses, and hear their very hearts beating for
war, for there is that hoarse brazen music that the war-god
loves stirring up the loiterers, and a note is heard imitating
the trumpet's short broken blasts ; then in eager alarm they
flock together, and flash their wings, and sharpen their beaks,
and string their arms, and throng and swarm round their
king and about the very door of the royal tent, and with
loud cries bid the foe come on. So when then they have got
a clear spring day, and the field is open before them, forth
they rush for the gates ; the battle joins high in air ; the diu
mounts up ; they are mingled and massed into a mighty ball,
and come tumbling down. Xever hail fell thicker through the

BOOK IV. 51-ni. 01

air, never did shaken oak rain such a shower of acorns. The
luonarchs themselves move throui^h the ranks, distinguished
by their wings, their giant souls ranging through their pigmy
bosoms, finu-set never to give way till the conqueror's heavy
hand has forced one or other of the hosts to turn its back in
ilight. These storms of passion, this conflict of giants, the
sprinkling of a little dust controls and lays to rest.

But when you have succeeded in recalling the two generals
from the field, take him wlio looks the worse, and save the
liive from the harmful excess by doing him to death ; let the
better reign in solitary state. One you will find emblazed
with stiffening drops of gold — for there are two royal races,
the better of distinguished mien, brilliant with red fliishing
scales ; the other sunk in squalor and inaction, and dragging
with him the ignoble weight of a huge belly. As the royal
featxires are of two kinds, so are the bodies of the common-
alty ; for one sort are loathly and squalid, like the traveller
when he emerges from his bath of dust, and spits the clay
from his dry throat, parched and tliirsty ; tlie others shine out
and flash resplendently, blazing in gold, and with regular spots
flecking their bodies. This is the wortliier progeny ; this, in
the sky's due season, will give you sweet honey to strain, and
not only sweet, but clear, and of power to subdue the wine-
god's harsher flavour.

But when the swarms fly aimlessly about and disport them
in the sky, scorning their cells, and leaving their homes to
chill, you must restrain their fickle spirits from such empty
trifling. Kor is restraint a hard task — do you dejmve the
monarchs of their wings : when they hang back, no subject
will venture to encounter the upward journey, or pluck up the
standard from the encampment. Let there be a garden to
tempt them Avith the fragrance of its saff'ron flowers, and the
guardianship of Priapus, god of the Hellespont, standing

92 THE GEORGICS.

sentinel against tliieves auil birds with scythe of willow, to
keep them safe. Let him, and none other, carry thyme and
pine-trees down from the mountain- tops, and set them all
about the hive, whose charge such things are ; let him, and
none other, make the hand sore with hard toil ; let him, and
none other, put into the ground plants that will bear, and
sprinkle the friendly shower.

Aye, and for myself — were I not now at the very end of
my enterprise, furling my sails, and hastening to bring my
]'row to land, it may be that I should extend my song to tell
what care of husbandry decks the luxuriant garden with
flowers, and the rosaries of twice-bearing Ppestum ; and what
is the joy that the endive feels in the stream which it drinks,
and the green banks in the parsley that fringes them, and how
the cucumber winds along the grass and swells into a belly ;
nor had I passed in silence the late-flowering narcissus, or the
acanthus' bending stem, or the pale yellow ivy, or the myrtle
that loves the coast. For I remember hoAV once, under the
shadow of QEbalia's lofty towers, wdiere dark Galsesus bathes
the yellow fields, I saw an old man of Corycus, who had a few
acres of unappropriated land, soil with no jiroductiveness for
bullocks, no fitness for cattle, no friendliness for the wine-god.
Yet he, while planting pot-herbs thinly among the boskage,
and round them white lilies, and vervain, and scant poppies,
had a heart that matched the wealth of kings ; and often as
he came home at night, he would pile his table high witli
unbought viands. None so early as he to pluck the rose in.
spring, the apple in autumn; and when winter in its bitterest
mood was still splitting the very rocks with the frost, and
bridling with ice the rush of the Avater, there Avas he, already
gathering the hyacinth's delicate flower, with many a gibe at
that late summer and those loitering zephyrs. Thus he was
the first to swarm with mother-bees and their plenteous young,

BOOK IV. 111-1C8. 93

and to collect tlie honey as it frothed out from the squeezed
comb ; for he liad limes and pines in luxuriant plenty ; and
all the fruit Avith Avhich each prolific tree had clad itself in
its early bloom, it retained undiminished in the ripeness of
autumn. He, too, had been known to plant out in rows elms,
Avell on in life, and pears grown hard as iron, and thorns which
had begun to bear plums, and plane-trees, already tendering
to drinkers the service of their shade. All this, however, I
must pass by for myself, precluded as I am by my ungracious
limits, and leave to others to record when my work is over.

Now listen, and I will tell of the nature which almighty
Jove of his own act conferred on the bees, the wages for
■which they went after the musical sounds of the Curetes and
the tinkling of the brass, and fed the king of Heaven under
the cave of Dicte. They alono have their children in
common, their dwellings associated into a city ; they alono
lead a life of submission to the majesty of law ; they alone
know the claims of country and the jiermanence of home,
think of Avinter before it comes, try in summer what toil can
do, and lay up in store what each has earned for the public.
For some with sleepless care watch over the general susten-
ance, and go out by a set rule to labour abroad ; some within
tlie walls of their homes lay down the narcissus' tear and the
clannny gum from the bark of trees as the first foundation
of the comb, and then hang in air the roof of clinging wax ;
others lead out the nation's hope, the young now grown ;
others again mass together honey of the purest water, and
strain the cells to bursting with its clear nectarous sweets ;
some there are on whom the sentry's work of the gates
devolves by lot, and who take their turn in looking out
for showers and gathering clouds, or relieve those who are
coming in of their burdens, or collect a troop and expel
from their stall the drones — that lazy, thriftless herd Tlift

9+ THE GEORGICS.

work is all fire, and a scent of tliyme breathes from the fra-
grant honey. Even as when the Cyclopes to meet a sudden
call are forging thunderbolts from the reluctant ore — some
■with their leathern bellows are taking in and giving out the
wind, others are dipi)ing tlie hissing copper in the lake,
while ^tna groans under the anvil's weight ; they, one with
another, Avith all a giant's strength, are lifting their arms iu
measured cadence, and turning with their griping tongs the
iron here and there — so, if it be right to compare small things
with great, the bees of Cecrops' clime are stimulated to labour
by an inborn love of acquiring, each in his own function.
The old have charge of the toAvn, of rearing walls of comb,
and building dwellings of cunning frame; the younger sort
drag themselves home late at night, tired, Avith their thighs
laden with thyme ; they feed dispersedly on arbutes and gray
Avillow leaves, and casia and crocus glowing red, and luxuri-
ant limes, and purple hyacinths. All have one timQ for rest
from their work, all have one time for labour : at daybreak
they pour from the gates — no delaying ; again, when the star
of eve has warned them to quit their pasture at last, and
Avithdraw from the plains, at once they seek their homes, at
once they bethink them of refreshment ; a noise is heard — ■
they hum about the entrance, and on the threshold. After-
Avards, Avhen they have settled into their beds, there is silence
for the night, and their Aveary limbs are lapped in the
sleep that they love. Again, they do not go far away from
their stalls when there is rain oA^erhead, or put faith in
the sky Avhile east Avinds are on the Aving, but about the
hive, under the shelter of the city's Avail, they fetch in Avater,
and try short excursions, and often take up pebbles, as the
tossing Avave makes unsteady boats take up ballast, and Avitli
these balance themselves as they move through the unsub-
Btantial clouds. There is another custom Avhich yon will

BOOK IV. 169-226. c5

wniitlor should have found favour with the bees, that they do
not give Avay to sexual intercourse, but unaided pick up their
young in their mouths from leaves and grateful herbage ;
unaided they supply their Rome with a new monarch and
tiny citizens, and so remodel the palace and the whole waxen
realm. Often, too, while straying among rugged rocks they
have been known to crush their wings and yield their patriot
lives under their load — so intense is their love of flowers, so
paramount the pride of gendering honey. Hence it is, that
though each single bee is born to a narrow span of life — for
their summers never stretch beyond the seventh — the family
abides undying, and for many, many years, the star of the
liouse delays to go down, and fathers' fathers of fathers'
fatliers are counted on the rolL

Moreover, royalty never receives such homage from Egypt,
or from mighty Lydia, from the nations of Parthia, or from
Median Hydaspes. Wliile the king is safe, all are of one
mind ; when he perishes, the bond is broken ; they themselves
plunder the honey that they stored with such skill, and tear
in pieces the comb's cunning wicker-work. He is the master
of the works ; to him they look up ; the whole nation sur-
rounds him, thronging and humming, and swarms as a guard
about his person ; and often they lift him on their shoulders,
and shield him Avith their bodies from the shock of battle,
and in the shower of wounds seek a glorious death.

From these tokens, and with these instances to guide them,
some have said that bees have received a share of the divine
intelligence, a draught of the pure ethereal stream ; the Deity,
they tell us, pervades all, earth and the expanse of sea, and
the deep vault of heaven ; from Him flocks, herds, men, wild
beasts of every sort, each creature at its birth draws the bright
thread of life ; further, to Him all things return, are restored
and reduced — death has no place among them ; but they fly

96 THE GEORGICS.

lip alive into the ranks of the stars, and take their scats aloft
in the sky.

If ever you ^vonld break the seal of their narrow dwelling,
and of the treasury where their honey is stored, first cleanse
your mouth ■with a sprinkling draught of water, and arm your
liand with the searching power of smoke. Twice they gather
in their teeming produce, twice a year comes their harvest —
once ■when Taygete, the Pleiad, displays to the earth her
graceful head, and spurns the ocean stream with her scornful
foot ; and again when, flying from the sign of the watery
Fish, she makes her sad descent from heaven into the wintry
■wave. Their fury, too, is all in excess ; hurt them, and they
shoot poison into the bite they give, fasten on a vein, and
leave in it their unseen stings, and thus bury their o^wn lives
in the wound.

But if you fear for them the tyranny of winter, and so
Avould deal gently with their future, pitying the thought of
a nation's spirit crushed and a common weal ruined, yet to
fumigate the hive with thyme, and to cut away the empty
cells of wax, who would shrink from that ? for often has the
comb been gnawed away unknown by the eft and by the
cradled young of the light-hating beetle ; and the drone, who
sits down, an unworking citizen, to another's food ; or the
fierce hornet has dashed among their unequal forces ; or moths,
a terrible race ; or Minerva's foe, the spider, has hung her
loose-threaded nets across their doorway. The greater the
drain on them has been, the greater the zeal with which all
will exert themselves to repair the wreck of the fallen house,
filling up the rows of their cells, and planking their granaries
with the spoils of the flowers.

But if, seeing that bees, like men, must meet the chances
of life, their frames should be unstrung by grievous sickness
—a thing ■which you will be abb to tell at once by signs of

DOCK IV. 226-2S1. 97

no doubtful moanin^' — as they sicken tlieir colour at once
changes, a squalid leanness disfigures their features ; soon
they carry out from their homes the corpses of those "who
have lost life's light, and lead the melancholy procession to
the grave ; cither they hang about the door with their feet
linked together, or keep lingering -within in their closed
dwelling, one and all languid Avith hunger and torpid with
pinching cold. Tlien a hoarse noise strikes the ear, and they
hum droningly and long, like the sigh of the bleak south
through the forest, like the crash of the troubled sea as its
waves retire from the beach, like the roar of the surging
blaze in the closed furnace. Xow, aye ami before now, I
would counsel you to burn the scent of galbanum, and to
convey honey through pipes of reed, anticipating them witli
your encouragement, and inviting the poor tired creatures to
tlic food they know and love. It Avill be well too to mi.K
with the honey the flavour of pounded galls, and dried rose
leaves, or wine thickened to syrup over a hot fire, or the
juice of the raisin-cluster from the Psithian vine, and the
thyme of Cecrops' land, and the pungent-smelling centaury.
A flower, too, there grows in the meadows, to which tho
countrymen have attached the name of amelhis, a plant which
gives little trouble to those who seek it, for it shoots up a
great vegetation from the one spot of turf where it springs :
itself of golden hue, but in the leaves which cluster roimd
that golden centre there are gleams of piirple under a dark
violet tint : many a time ha\e the altars of the gods been
decked with its twined festoons ; it leaves a bitter taste in
the moiith : among the nibbled herbage of the valley, tho
shepherds gather it, near the Avinding stream of !Mella. Take
it and boil its roots in the wine-god's generous perfume, and
place it for their food in the doorAvay in piled baskets.

But should there be any whose whole stock has failed him

G

qS the georgics.

suddenly, and left no means of calling back tlic line to life
in a new race, it is time that I should also disclose the
memorable discovery of the great Arcadian keeper, and the
■way in which, oft ere now, from the slaughter of bullocks,
tainted gore has generated bees. I will expound the whole
legend, mounting up to the source, and tracing it thence.
For where the favoured race of Macedon's Canopus dwell by
the stagnant Nile and its overflowing waters, and travel in
painted boats about the lands they till, where quivered
Persia's contiguity presses hard on the frontier, and the rapid
river parts into seven separate mouths, and with its black
slime fertilises the green land of Egypt — the river that has
come down all the way from among the sun-baked Indians —
that entire clime rests the weal of its hives with confidence
on this device.

In the first place, a spot small and confined for the very
purpose is chosen out ; this they close in with narrow roof-
tiling, and straitened walls, and insert four windows, with
slanting light from the four quarters of heaven. ]S'ext they
look out for a bull-calf, whose horns have begun to arch
over a brow that has seen two summers ; they take him
and seal up his two nostrils and his mouth's breath, spite
of furious struggles ; and after he has been slain by their
blows, his flesh through his unbroken hide is beaten to a jelly.
As he lies, they leave him in his barred prison, placing under
his ribs broken bits of bough, and thyme, and fresh-plucked
casia. This goes on when the west winds first play upon the
waters, ere the meadows are empurpled with fresh spring-tide
hues, ere the chattering swallow hangs her nest from the
rafters. Meanwhile, in his softened bones the sap has been
heated and begins to ferment, and living things of strange
manner to look upon, at first with no feet to crawl on, but
soon even with wings to buzz and fly with, swarm confusedly,

BOOK IV. cS2-3}i. 99

and skim tlie empty air more and more, till, like a burst of
rain from a summer cloud, out they break, or like arrows
from tlic rebounding cord, "whenever the light-armed Parthian
strikes up the prelude of the battle.

"Who of the god?, ye muses, -who, beat out for us men this
skilled device ] "Whence did this fresh growth of men's
experience take its rise 1

It was the shepherd, Aristseus, turning his Back on Tempo
and her Peneus, when his bees were all dead — so runs the
tale— of disease and famine, that stood in sorrow at the sacred
head where the river rises, Avith many a plaint, and in words
like these bespoke her that bore him : ' ^[other Cyrene,
mother, whose dwelling is at the bottom of this gulf, wliy
didst thou bear me, a son of an illustrious line of gods — if at
least he of whom thou tellcst me is my father, Thymbra's
Apollo — to a life under an evil star? "Whither lias thy love
for me and mine been banisheil 1 "Wherefore didst thou bid
me look forward to the sky 1 Sec now, even this very crown
of my poor mortality, which a life of skilful watching over
corn and cattle had barely won for me, every effort tried, I
must resign — and thou art my mother still ! "Why then, como
on — put thine own hand to the Avork, uproot my fruitful
forests, bring into my stalls the fire they hate, kill my crops,
burn my young plants, and wield against my vines the heaviest
axe thou canst find, if the access of thy disgust at hearing me
}iraised be indeed so strong.'

r.ut his mother caught the sound as she sat in the bed-
chamber of the deep stream. Around her the nymphs were
spinning wool of Miletus, ingrained with hyaline's saturating
dye, Drymo, and Xantho, and Ligeia, and Phyllodoce, their
bright locks floating over their snowy necks, and Cydippe,
and yellow-haired Lycorias — a maiden one, the other having
just proved the first pangs of the goddess of travail — and Cli^,

loo THE GEORGICS.

and Leroc, lier sister, cliilJren of Ocean Lotli, botli girt ^vith
gold, both Avitli dresses of dappled hide, and Ephyre, and
Opis, and Asian Deiopeia, and Arethusa fleet of foot, her
huntress' shafts at last laid by ; among them Clymene Avas
telling the tale of Yulcan's vain jealousy, of IMars' stratagem
and the joy he stole, and from cliaos downwards was counting
the crowded muster-roll of the loves of the gods. As they sit
entranced by the song, and the spindle carries down their fleecy
tasks, yet again there smote on the mother's ear the wail of
Aristaeus, and all were confounded on their crystal seats ; but
Arethusa, anticipating the rest of the sisterhood, looked forth,
and raised her yellow head from the water's surface, and cried
from the distance — ' 0 thou whom a groan so loud has not
scared for nought, sister Cyrene, it is himself, thy chiefest
care, Aristaeus, that stands at the wave of our father Peneus
Aveeping to thee, and calling on thy cruel name.' Struck to
the soul with a strange terror, ' Go, bring him, bring him
to us ; he may touch the floor that gods tread,' cries the
mother. With that she bids the deep stream retire far and wide,
making a path on which the youth might walk. Kound him
closed the wave arched into mountain form, took him into its
giant bosom, and sped him down under the river. And now
he is on his way marvelling at his mother's palace and the
Avhole watery realm, pools locked by caves and forests echoing
wide, and, all confounded by the mighty rush of the waters,
is gazing on all the rivers of earth as they flow under its vast
surface each in its several bed — Phasis, and Lycus, and the
source whence first breaks forth the deep Enipeus, whence
Tiber, the Eoman's father, and whence the streams of Anio,
and rocky roaring Hypanis, and Mysian Caicus, and he that
bears two gilded horns on his bull's brow, Eridanus, than
whom no river pours himself more forcefully through his rich
cultured plains into the blue flushing deep. After he had

BOOK IV. 341-403. loi

come under tlie chamber's stone-hung roof, and Cyrone had
taken knowledge of her son's bootless weeping, the sisterliood,
each in her course, offer liim clear spring water for bis hands,
and present towels with the nap duly shorn, while others load
the table with viands, and set on cups brimming again and
again : the altars mount up Avith Panchaian fires ; and ' Take,'
says the mother, ' the bowl of Moeonia's wine-god ; make we
libation to Ocean.' So speaking, she offers herself a prayer to
Ocean, father of creation, and the sisterhood of nymphs, tho
hundred guardians of the woods, the hundred of tlie rivers.
Thrice witli the clear nectar she sprinkled the blazing fire-
queen j thrice the flame shot up to the roof-top and shone
again. Cheering his heart with the omen, she thus begins
her speech : —

' In the sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus,
of the sea's own hue, who takes tho measure of tlio mighty
tleep with his fishes, even Avith his harnessed car of two-legged
steeds. He is at this moment visiting again the havens uf
Emathia and Pallene, the country of his birth. To him wo
nymphs all do reverence, aye, and Nereus too, tho old and
grey ; for all things are known to the seor, those which are,
those which have been, those which drag th^ir length through
the advancing future. So it seemed good to Neptune, whoso
monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves he pastures under the
deep. Him, my son, you must first make prisoner and bind,
that he may unfold all the history of the disease and prosper
the issue. For without force ho will give no counsel, nor will
your praying bend him ; force, stern force, and fetters must bo
put upon the captive ; against them his bafiled wiles will at
last be broken. I myself, when the sun has kindled his
mid-day furnace, when the herbage is athirst, and cattle
begin to feel the joy of the shade, Avill lead you into tho old
one's privacy, the place where he retires from his labours in

102 THE GEORGICS.

tlie water, that you may easily fall on liim as lie lies asleep.-
Eut when you have caught him in the grasp of hand and
fetter, then the divers forms and features of wild beasts Avill
lie put on to mock you. He will change suddenly to a bristly
boar, and a grim black tiger, a scaly dragon, and a lioness with
tawny mane ; or he will send forth the sharp crackling of
flame, and thus slip out of your bonds, or will trickle away
into unsubstantial water and be gone. But the more you find
him turn himself into shape after shape, the tighter, my son,
strain the gripe of your bonds, till, his last change over, he
appear in the form in which you saw him when sleep had set
in and his eyes were curtained.'

So saying, she bids ambrosia send forth its liquid perfume,
Avhich she spreads over her son's whole frame ; at once he felt
his new-trimmed locks exhale a breath of fragrance, and a
supple vigour pass into his limbs. There is a vast cave
eaten out in a moimtain's side, whereinto wave upon wave is
driven by the wind, and breaks in the retreating inlet — to the
mariner, when the storm is upon him, at times a roadstead
of safest shelter. There, far Avithin, Proteus screens himself
with tlie barrier of an enormous rock. Here the nymph
places the yoi;tli in hiding, away from the light ; she her-
self stands off in the dusk of a mist she raises. Already
Sirius was all ablaze in the sky, Avith that fierce gloAV that
s:orclies the Indians with thirst, and the sun's fiery car had
exhausted the half of its circuit ; the herbage was parching,
and the hollow rivers, their dry jaws agape, were being baked
by the sunbeams into a heated mass of mud, when Proteus
was on his way from the surge, making for the accustomed
cave ; around him the moist generation of the broad sea, leap-
ing gamesomely, flung about the salt spray. They lay them-
selves to sleep, the sea calves, here and there along the beach ;
he, like the warder of a fold one day among the hills, Avhen

BOOK IV. 404-464. 103

the star of eve brings the calves liome from pasture, and the
sound of the lamb's bloating whets the "wolf's maw, sits down
in the middle of the rock and tells over their tale. Soon as Aris-
ta3us saw the facility within his grasp, scarcely giving the old
one time to settle his tired limbs, he bursts on him with a
tremendous cry, and invades him with manacles there as he
lies. The god on his part, his craft then, as ever, in his mind,
transforms himself into all that is monstrous in nature — the
fire, the hideous beast, the flowing stream. Eut when no
stratagem finds him escape, vanquished, ho becomes himself
again, and at last from human lips speaks thus : — ' Why, who
has bid thee, most assured of all youths that are, to visit us
in our home 1 or what wouldst thou have hence 1 ' But he,
'Thou knowest, Proteus, thou knowest of thyself — nought
can cheat thee ; but do thou leave ofT the will to cheat.
Following the instructions of gods I am come, to ask an oracle
for my o'erlaboured fortunes.' So far he spoke. At this tlio
seer at length, with mighty force, darted on him the glass-
green glare of his fiery eyes, and heavily gnashing liis teeth,
thus broke the seal of his lips with the voice of destiny : —

'No — think not it is no angry god that has laid his hand
on thee — thy suffering is for a great crime : this thy punish-
ment Orpheus, a wretched man by no fault of his own, should
fate not interpose, is still stinging into life, still raging implac-
ably for his ravished bride. She, in her headlong flight from
thee, along the river meadow, saw not, the young doomed one
that she was, in the deep grass an enormous water-serpent
right before her feet, keeping ward over the river-bank. But
the choir of her peers, the Dryads, filled the very mountain-
peaks with their crying : her dirge was sung by the steeps of
Rhodope, and high Panga^a and Rhesus' land, the land of the
war-god, by the Getse, by Hebrus, and Orithyia, Acte's child ;
while he, solacing with the hollow shell his distempered love,

I04 THE GEORGICS.

made thee, Jading wife, thee, all to himself on the lonely
shore, thee at dawn of day, thee at set of sun, his unending
song. Aye, and he entered the jaws of Ttenarus, the abysmal
gates of Pluto's court, and the grove that darkles with a horror
of blackness ; he went to the shades, and their terrible king,
and knocked at the heart which never learnt to soften at
human prayer. Startled by the song, came trooping from
Erebus' deepest prison thin spectres and phantoms of those
who lie in darkness, many as the myriads of birds that hide
them in the leaves, when eve or winter's rain chases them
from the hills — matrons, and husbands, and frames of high-
souled heroes discharged of life, boys and unwedded girls, and
youths that had been carried to death in their parents' sight,
round whom the blackening ooze and the loatlily reeds of
Cocytus, and the sluggish waters of that unlovely swamp
throw their chains, and Styx, wound nine times about them,
holds them in durance. Xay, a charm fell on the very house
of death, on the abyss of Tartarus itself, and the Furies, with
livid snakes wreathing in their hair, and Cerberus riveted
his three mouths attentive and agape, and Ixiou's circling
wheel stood fixed in wind-bound slumber. And now he was
returning home, and every chance was just escaped, and
Eurydice, surrendered to his prayer, M-as passing into the air
of heaven, following behind — for such the condition that
Proserpine had imposed — when a sudden frenzy took hold of
the unthinking lover — a sin that might plead for pardon, were
pardon an art known to the shades — he stopped. Eurydice
was now his own, treading on the very threshold of daylight
— his memory fled, alas ! his soul was mastered — he looked
back on her. That instant all his pains were spilt like so
much water, the covenant of the ruthless monarch was broken,
and a thunder peal was heard thrice through Avernus' sluggish
depths. She cried — "Oh! what madness, what monstrous

BOOK IV. 465-5:3. 105

madness lias undone me, poor me, and thee too, my Orpheus ?
Look ! again that cruel destiny is calling me back, and sleep
is burying my swimming eyes. And now farewell. I am
borne away, swathed in night's vast pall, and stretching
towards thee powerless hands — thine own, alas ! no longer."
She said, and suddenly from his sight, like smoke that mingles
with thin air, she fled by another way, and tliough he caught
in vain at the shadows, and essayed to say a thousand thing?,
never saw him more : nor did the ferryman of Orcus suffer
])im any further to pass the barrier of marsh- water, Wliat
was he to do? whither was he to turn him, thus widowed
a second time? where was there a new wail to touch the
shades, new accents to melt the gods below? Ami slie —
she was floating off in the boat of Styx, deatli-cliilled
already. Seven whole months, one with another, they
say, under a skiey rock, by tlic waters of lonely Strymon,
he made his moan, and unfolded this his talo beneath the
wintry caverns, in strains that softened the tiger and drew tho
oak to follow him — as the nightingale wailing in the poplar
shade plains for her lost young, that the rustic churl, with his
prying eye, has taken imfledged from the ni'.^t : while she
weeps the night through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces
lier piteous melody, and fills tlic country round with the
plaints of her sorrow. No queen of love, no bridal rites had
])ower over his soul. Alone, over Hyperborean ice, and Tanais
the snowy, and fields whose marriage-bond with Ehipai'an
frost is never severed, he would ramble, sorrowing for his lost
Eurydice and Pluto's cancelled boon — a service resented as
scorn by the Cicon dames, who, on a night of sacrifice to
heaven and orgies to Eacchus, tore the youth in pieces, and
scattered him broadcast over the plain. Even then, Avhile the
head, rent from that pale marble neck, was swept floating
doAvn the midst of CEagrian Hebrus' flood, Eurydice, the bare

lo6 THE GEORGICS.

voice of the cold tongue — Ah/ my j)oor Eurydice — kept call-
ing as life parted. Eurydice, tlie banks returned all down
the stream.'

So far Proteus, and flounced into the deep sea, and when
lie plunged wreathed the Avater in foam under the circling
eddy.

Not so Cj^rene — at once she turned to the trembling
listener : — ' My son, you are free to unburden your mind of
its grievous care. This is the whole secret of the plague : for
this the nymphs, Avith whom she wont to dance in the tall
green wood, have sent among your bees such piteous havoc.
Le it youTS to tender a suppliant's offerings, praying to be
reconciled, and pay homage to tlie gracious sisters of the groves :
for they will grant forgiveness at your prayer, and abate their
wrath. But the method of supplication shall first be explained
in due course. Pick out four choice bulls of goodly frame, now
grazing among thy herds on the top of green Lycaeus, and
as many heifers whose neck never yoke has touched. For
these set up four altars by the gods' lofty fanes, and let from
their throats the stream of sacred blood, and leave the bodies
of the kine to themselves in the leafy grove. After, when the
ninth morn-goddess shall have disi)layed the dawn, to Orpheus
you Avill send a funeral sacrifice of Lethe's poppies, and slay
a black sheep, and visit the grove again : then, when you find
Eurydice appeased, you will pay her the thank-offering of a
slaughtered calf.'

Not an hour's delay : at once he does his mother's bidding :
to the fane he comes : he uprears the prescribed altars, four
choice bulls of goodly frame he leads thither, and as many
heifers whose neck never yoke has touched. After, when the
ninth morn-goddess had ushered in the dawn, he sends to
Orpheus a funeral sacrifice, and visits the grove again. And
now a portent, sudden and marvellous to tell, meets their.

LOOK IV. 525-5C6. IC7

view : through the whole length of the kine's dissolving flesh
bees are seen, buzzing in the belly and boiling out through the
bursten ribs, and huge clouds lengthen and sway, till at last
they pour altogether to the tree's top, and let down a cluster
from the bending boughs.

Such was the song I was making ; a song of the husbandry
of fields and cattle, and of trees ; while C»sar, the great, is
flashing war's thunderbolt over the depths of Euphrates, and
dispensing among willing nations a conqueror's law, and
petting his foot on the road to the sky. In those days I was
jjeing nursed in Parthenope's delicious lap, embowered in the
pursuits of inglorious peace — I, Virgil, who once dallied with
the shepherd's muse, and with a young man's boldness, san^j
of thee, Tityrus, under the spreading beechcn shade.

( I3B J

THE JENEID.

LOOK I.

Arms and the man I sing, who at the first from Troy's shores
the exile of destiny, won his way to Italy and her Latian
coast — a man much buffeted on land and on the deep by
violence from above, to sate the unforgetting wrath of Juno
the cruel — much scourged too in war, as he struggled to build
him a city, and find his gods a home in Latium — himself the i
father of the Latian people, and the chiefs of AUja's houses,
and the walls of high towering Eome.

Ering to my mind, 0 Muse, the causes — for what treason
against her godhead, or what pain received, the queen of
heaven drove a man of piety so signal to turn the wheel of so
many, calamities, to bear the brunt of so many hardships !
Can heavenly natures hate so fiercely and so long 1

Of old there was a city, its people emigrants from Tyre,
Carthage, over against Italy and Tiber's mouths, yet fur
removed — rich and mighty, and formed to all roughness by
war's iron trade — a spot where Juno, it was said, loved
to dwell more than in all the world beside, Samos holdin--'
but the second place. Here was her armour, here her chariot
— here to fix by her royal act the empire of the nations,
could Fate be brought to assent, was even then her aim, her

BOOK I. I -46. 109

cliciished sclieuie. But she had heard that the blood of Troy
Avas sowing the seed of a race to overturn one day those
Tyrian towers — from tliat seed a nation, monarch of broad
reahus and glorious in war, was to bring ruin on 'Libya — such
the turning of Fate's wheel. "With these fears Saturn's
daughter, and with a lively memory of that old war which
at first she had waged at Troy for her loved Argos' sake —
nor indeed had the causes of that feud and the bitter pangs
they roused yet vanished from her mind — no, stored up in
her soul's depths remains the judgment of Paris, and the
wrong done to her slighted beauty, and the race abhorred
from tlie womb, and the state enjoyed by the ravished
Ganymede. AVith this fuel added to the fire, the Trojans,
poor remnants of Danaan havoc and Achilles' ruthless spear,
she was tossing from sea to sea, and keeping far away from
Latium ; and for many long years they were wandering, with
destiny still driving them, the whole ocean round. So vast
the effort it cost to build up the Eoman nation !

Scarce out of sight of the land of Sicily were they spread-
ing their sails merrily to the deep, and scattering with their
brazen prows the briny spray, when Juno, the everlasting
wound still rankling in her heart's coro, thus communed with
herself : ' And am I to give up what I have taken in hand,
baffled, nor have power to prevent the king of the Teucrians
from reaching Italy — because, forsooth, the Fates forbid me ?
"What ! was Pallas strong enough to burn up utterly the
Grecian fleet, and whelm the crews in the sea, for the olTence
of a single man, the frenzy of Ajax, Oileus' son 1 Aye, she
with her oAvn hand launched from the clouds Jove's winged
fire, dashed the ships apart, and turned up the sea-floor Avith
the wind — him, gasping out the flame which pierced his
bosom, she caught in the blast, and impaled on a rock's point
— while I, who walk the sky as its queen, Jove's sister and

no THE .^XEID.

consort both, am battling with a single nation these many
years. And are there any fomid to pray to Juno's deity after
this, or lay on her altar a suppliant's gift ? '

"With such thoughts sweeping through the solitude of her
enkindled breast, the goddess comes to the storm-cloud's
birthplace, the teeming Avomb of fierce southern blasts, ^olia.
Here, in a vast cavern. King -^olus is bowing to his sway
struggling winds and howling tempests, and bridling them
with bond and prison. They, in their passion, are raving at
the closed doors, while the huge rock roars responsive : ^olus
is sitting aloft in his fortress, his sceptre in his hand, soothing
their moods and allaying their rage ; were he to fail in this,
why sea and land, and the deep of heaven, would all be
forced along by their blast, and swept through the air. But
the almighty sire has buried them in caverns dark and deep,
Avith this fear before his eyes, and placed ov^er them giant bulk
and tall mountains, and given them a king who, by the terms
of his compact, should know how to tighten or slacken the
reins at his patron's Avill. To him it w^as that Juno then, in
these words, made her humble request : —

'-^olus — for it is to thee that the sire of gods and king of
men has given it with the winds now to calm, now to rouse
the billows — there is a race which I love not now sailing the
Tyrrhene sea, carrying Ilion into Italy and Ilion's vanquished
gods ; do thou lash the winds to fury, sink and whelm their
ships, or scatter them apart, and strew the ocean with their
corpses. Twice seven nymphs are of my train, all of sur-
passing beauty ; of these her whose form is fairest, Deiopea,
I will unite to thee in lasting wedlock, and consecrate her
thy own, that all her days, for a service so great, she may
pass with thee, and make thee father of a goodly progeny.'

^olus returns : 'Thine, great Queen, is the task to search
out on what thou mayest fix thy heart ; for me to do thy

DOOK I. 47-IC6. Ill

bidding is but right. Tliou makest this poor realm miue, mine
the sceptre and Jove's smile ; thou givest me a conch at the
banquets of the gods, and makest me lord of the storm-cloud
and of the tempest,'

So soon as this was said, he turned his spear, and pushed
the hollow mountain on its side ; and the winds, as though in
column formed, rush forth where they see an outlet, and sweep
over the earth in hurricane. Heavily they fall on the sea, and
from its very bottom crash down the whole expanse — one and
all, east and south, and south-Avest, with his storms thronging
at his back, and roll huge billows shoreward. Hark to the
shrieks of the crew, and the creaking of the cables ! In an
instant the clouds snatch sky and daylight from the Teu-
crians' eyes — night lies on the deep, black and heavy — pole
thunders to pole ; heaven flashes thick with fires, and all
nature brandishes instant death in the seaman's face. At
once Eneas' limbs are unstrung and chilled — he groans aloud,
and, stretching his clasped hands to the stars, fetches from
his breast words like these : — ' 0 happy, thrice and again,
Avhose lot it wa?, in their fathers' sight, under Ti'oy's high
walls to meet death ! 0 thou, the bravest of the Danaan race,
Tydeus' son, why was it not mine to lay me low on Ilion's
plains, and yield this fated life to thy right hand] Aye,
there it is that Hector, stern as in life, lies stretched by the
spear of ^Eacides — there lies Sarpedon's giant bulk — there it
is that Simois seizes and sweeps down her channel those many
shields and helms, and bodies of the brave ! '

Such AYords as he flung wildly forth, a blast roaring from
the north strikes his sail full in front and lifts the billows
to the stars. Shattered are the oars; then the prow turns
and presents the ship's side to the waves ; down crashes in
a heap a craggy mountain of water. Look ! these are hang-
ing on the surge's crest — to those the yawning deep is giving

112 THE MNEID.

a glimpse of land down among the billows j surf and sand are
raving together. Three ships the south catches, and flings
upon hidden rocks — rocks which, as they stand Avith the
waves all about them, the Italians call Altars, an enormous
ridge rising above the sea. Three the east drives from the
main on to shallows and Sjrtes, a piteous sight, and dashes
them on shoals, and embanks them in mounds of sand. One
in which the Lycians were sailing, and true Orontes, a
mighty sea strikes from high on the stem before Eneas'
very eyes ; down goes the helmsman, washed from his post,
and toppjles on his head, while she is thrice whirled round by
the billow in the spot where she lay, and swallowed at once
by the greedy gulf. You might see them here and there
swimming in that vast abyss — heroes' arms, and planks, antl
Troy's treasures glimmering through the water. Already
Ilioneus' stout ship, already brave Achates', and that in which
Abas sailed, and that which carried old Aletes, are worsted
by the storm ; their side-jointings loosened, one and all give
entrance to the watery foe, and part failingly asunder.

Meantime the roaring riot of the ocean and the storm let
loose reached the sense of Xeptune, and the still waters dis-
gorged from their deep beds, troubling him grievously ; and
casting a broad glance over the main he raised at once his tran-
quil brow from the v/ater's surface. There he sees iEneas' fleet
tossed hither and thither over the whole expanse — the Trojans
whelmed under the billows, and the .crashing ruin of the sky
— nor failed the brother to read Juno's craft and hatred there.
East and West he calls before him, and bespeaks them thus :
— ' Are ye then so wholly o'ermastered by the pride of your
birth? Have ye come to this, ye "Winds, that, without sanc-
tion from me, ye dare to confound sea and land, and upheave

these mighty mountains ? ye ! whom I but it were best

to calm the billows ye have troubled. Henceforth ye shall

BOOK I. 107-164. 03

pay me for jowv crimes in far other coin. Make good speed
witli your flight, and give your king this message. Not to
him did the lot assign the empire of the sea and the terrible
trident, but to me. His sway is over those enormous rocks,
where you, Eurus, dwell, and such as you ; in that court let
i^i^olus lord it, and rule in the prison-house of the winds when
its doors are barred.'

He speaks, and ere his words are done soothes the swelling
waters, and routs the mustered clouds, and brings back the
sun in triumph. Cymotlioe and Triton combine their efforts
to pusli off the vessels from the shar^vpointed rock. The god
himself uiiheaves them with his own trident, and levels the
great quicksands, and allays the sea, and on chariot-wheels of
lightest motion glides along the water's top. Even as when
in a great crowd tumult is oft stirred up, and the base herd
waxes wild and frantic, and brands and stones are flying
already, rage suiting the weapon to the hand — at that
moment, should their eyes fall on some man of weight, for
duty done and public wortli, tongues are hushed and ears
fixed in attention, while his words sway the spirit and soothe
the breast — so fell all the thunders of the ocean, so soon as
tlie great father, with the waves before liim in prospect, and
tlie clear sky all about him, guides his steeds at will, and as
he flies flings out the reins freely to his obedient car.

Spent with toil, the family of ^neas labour to gain the
shore that may be nearest, and are carried to the coasts of
Libya. There is a spot retiring deep into the land, where
an island forms a haven by the barrier of its sides, which
break every billoAv from the main and send it shattered into
the deep indented hollows. On either side of the bay are
huge rocks, and two great crags rising in menace to the sky ;
under their summits far and "wide the water is hushed in
shelter, while a theatric background of waving woods, a black

114 THE .ENEID.

forest of stiffening shade, overhangs it from the height.
Under the brow that fronts the deep is a cave with pendent
crags ; within there are fresh springs and seats in the living
rock — the home of the nymphs ; no need of cable here to
confine the weary bark or anchor's crooked fang to grapple
her to the shore. Here with seven ships mustered from liis
whole fleet ^'Eneas enters ; and with intense yearning for dry
land the Trojans disembark and take possession of the wished-
for shore, and lay their brine-drenched limbs upon the beach.
And first Achates from a flint struck out a spark, and received
tlie fire as it dropped in a cradle of leaves, and placed dry
food all about it, and spread the strong blaze among the
tinder. Then their corn, soaked and spoiled as it was, and
the corn-goddess' armoury they bring out, sick of fortune ;
and make ready to parch the rescued grain at the fire, and
crush it with the millstone.

-^neas meanwhile clambers up a rock, and tries to get a
full view far and wide over the sea, if haply he may see
aught of Antheus, driven by the gale, and the Phrygian
biremes, or Capys, or high on the stern the arms of Caicus.
Sail there is none in sight ; three stags he sees at distance
straying on the shore ; these the whole herd follows in the
rear, and grazes along the hollows in long array. At once he
took his stand, and caught up a bow and fleet arrows, which
true Achates chanced to be carrying, and lays low first the
leaders themselves, as they bear their heads aloft with tree-
like antlers, then the meaner sort, and scatters with his pur-
suing shafts the whole rout among the leafy woods ; nor stays
his hand till he stretches on earth victoriously seven huge
bodies, and makes the sum of them even •with his ships.
Then he returns to the haven and gives all his comrades their
shares. The wine next, "which that good Acestes had stowed
iu casks on the Trinacrian sliore, and given them at parting

BOOK I. 165-224, 115

witli his own princely hand, he portions out, and speaks
words of comfort to their sorrowing hearts : —

' Comrades ! for comrades we are, no strangers to hardsliips
already ; hearts that have felt deeper wounds ! for those too
heaven will find a halm. Why, men, you have even looked
on Scylla in her madness, and heard those yells that thrill the
rocks ; you have even made trial of the crags of the Cyclops.
Come, call your spirits back, and banish these doleful fears —
who knows but some day this too will be remembered with
pleasure? Through manifold chances, through these many
perils of fortune, we are making our way to Latium, where
the Fates hold out to us a quiet settlement ; there Troy's em-
pire has leave to rise again from its ashes, liear up, and
reserve yourselves for brighter days.'

Such Avere the words his tongue uttered ; heart-sick with
overwhelming care, he wears the semblance of hope in his face,
but has grief deep buried in his heart. They gird themselves
to deal with the game, their forthcoming meal ; strip the hidu
from the ribs, and lay bare the flesh — some cut it into pieces,
and impale it yet quivering on spits, others set up the caldrons
on the beach, and supply them with flame. Then with food
they recall their strength, and, stretched along tlie turf, feast
on old wine and fat venison to their hearts' content. Their
hunger sated by the meal, and the boards removed, they vent
in long talk their anxious yearning for their missing comrades
— balanced between hope and fear, whether to think of them
as alive, or as suliering the last change, and deaf already to the
voice that calls on them. But good iEueas' grief exceeds the
rest ; one moment he groans for bold Orontes' fortune, another
for Amycus', and in the depth of his spirit laments for the cruel
fate of Lycus ; for the gallant Gyas and the gallant Cloanthus.

And now at last their mourning had an end, when Jupiter
from the height of ether, looking down on the sea with its

Ii6 THE MNEID.

fluttering sails, on the flat surface of earth, the shores, and tlie
broad tribes of men, paused thus upon heaven's very summit,
and fixed his downAvard gaze on Libya's reahns. To him,
revolving in his breast sucli thoughts as these, sad beyond her
wont, with tears suff"using her starry eyes, speaks Venus : ' O
thou, who by thy everlasting laws swayest the two common-
wealths of men and gods, and awest them by thy lightning !
What can my poor iEneas have done to merit thy wrath?
"What can the Trojans ? yet they, after the many deaths they
have sufi"ered already, still find the whole world barred again«t
them for Italy's sake. From them assuredly it was that tlio
Romans, as years rolled on — from them were to spring those
warrior chiefs, aye from Teucer's blood revived, who should
rule sea and land with absolute sway — such was thy promise :
how has thy purpose, 0 my father, wrought a change in
thee 1 This, I know, was my constant solace when Troy's
star set in grievous ruin, as I sat balancing destiny against
destiny. And now here is the same Fortune, pursuing the
brave men she has so oft discomfited already. Mighty king,
what end of sufi"erings hast thou to give them? Antenor,
indeed, found means to escape through the midst of the
Achajans, to thread in safety the windings of the Illyrian coast,
and the realms of the Liburnians, up at the gulf's head, and
to pass the springs of Timavus, whence through nine moiiths,
'mid the rocks' responsive roar, the sea comes bursting up, and
deluges the fields with its thundering billows. Yet in that
spot he built the city of Patavium for his Trojans to dwell in,
and gave them a place and a name among the nations, and set
up a rest for the arms of Troy : now he reposes, lapped in the
calm of peace. Meantime we, of thine own blood, to whom
thy nod secures the pinnacle of heaven, our ships, most mon-
strous, lost, as thou seest, all to sate the malice of one cruel
heart, are given up to ruin, and severed far from the Italian

BOOK I. 224-2S3. 117

eliores. Is this the reward of piety 1 Is this to restore a kiiij,'
to his throne ? '

Smiling on her, the planter of gods and men, -with that
face -wliich calms the fitful moods of the sky, touched with
II kiss his daughter's lips, then addressed her thus : ' Give
thy fears a respite, lady of Cythera : tliy people's destiny
aljides still unchanged for thee ; thine eyes shall see the city
of thy heart, the promised walls of Laviniumj thine arms
shall bear aloft to the stars of heaven thy hero iEneas ; nor
has my purpose wrought a change in me. /^Thy hero — fur I
Avill speak out, in pity fur the care that rankles yet, and
awaken the secrets of Fate's book from the distant pages
where they slumberV-tliy hero shall Avagc a niiglity war in
Italy, crush its haughty tribes, and set up for his warriors a
]iolity and a city, till the third summer shall have seen him
king over Latium, and three winters in camp shall have passed
over the Kutulians' defeat. Ihit the boy Ascanius, who lias
now the new name of lulus — Ilus he was, while the royalty
of Ilion's state stood firm — shall let thirty of the sun's great
courses fulfil their monthly rounds while he is soveieign, then
transfer the empire from Lavinium's scut, and build Alba the
Long, with power and might. Here for full three hundred
years the crown sliall be worn by Hector's line, till a royal
priestess, teeming by the war-god, Ilia, shall be the mother of
twin sons. Then shall there be one, proud to wear the tawny
hide of the wolf that nursed him, Komulus, who will take up
the sceptre, and build a new city, the city of Mars, and give
the people his own name of Eoman, To them I assign no
limit, no date of empire : my grant to them is dominion with-
out end. Xay, Juno, thy savage foe, who now, in her blind
terror, lets neither sea, land, nor heaven rest, shall amend her
counsels, and vie with me in Avatching over the Kumans, lords
of earth, the great nation of the gown. So it is willed. The

i]8 THE mNEID.

time shall come, as Rome's years roll on, wlien tlie house of

Assaracus shall bend to its yoke Phthia and renowned

Mycencie, and queen it over vanquished Argos. Then shall

he born the child of an illustrious line, one of thine own

Trojans, Csesar, born to extend his empire to the ocean, his

glory to the stars, — Julius, in name as in blood the heir of

great lulus. Him thou shalt one day welcome in safety to

'the sky, a warrior laden with Eastern spoils; to him, as to

J^neas, men shall pray and make their vows. In his days

nvar shall cease, and savage times grow mild. Faith with her

hoary head, and Vesta, Quirinus, and Remus his brother,

shall give law to the world .grim, iron-bound, closely welded,-

Hhe gates of war shall be closed ; the fiend of Discord a

prisoner within, seated on a pile of arras deadly as himself,

his hands bound behind his back with a hundred brazen

chains, shall roar ghastly from his throat of blood.' ^

So saying, he sends down from on high the son of Maia,
V that Carthage the new, her lands and her towers, may open
^themselves to welcome in the Teucrians, lest Dido, in her
ignorance of Fate, should drive them from her borders. Down
flies Mercurv through the vast abyss of air, with his wings for
oars, and has speedily alighted on tlie shore of Libya. See !
he is doing his bidding already : the Punic nation is resigning
the fierceness of its nature at the god's pleasure ; above all the
rest, the queen is admitting into her bosom thoughts of peace
towards the Teucrians, and a heart of kindness.

But .^neas the good, revolving many things the whole night
through, soon as the gracious dawn is vouchsafed, resolves to
go out and explore this new region ; to inquire what shores
be these on which the wind has driven him ; who their
dwellers, for he sees it is a wilderness, men or beasts ; and
bring his comrades back the news. His fleet he hides in the
wooded cove under a hollow rock, with a wall of trees and

BOOK I. 283-3,1. 119

etiffcning shade on each side. He moves on with Acliates,
his single companion, -wieKHng in his hands two spear shafts,
with heads of broad iron. He had readied the middle of the
wood, when his Avay was crossed by his mother, wearing a
maiden's mien and dress, and a maiden's armour, Spartan, or
even as Harpalyce of Thrace, tires steed after steed, and heads
the swift waters of her own Hehrus as she flies along. For
she had a shapely bow duly slung from her shoulders in true
huntress fashion, and her hair streaming in the wind, her
knee bare, and her flowing scarf gathered round her in a knot.
Soon as she sees them, ' Ho ! youths,' cries she, * if you have
chanced to see one of my sisters wandering in these parts,
tell me where to find her — wandering with a quiver, and a
spotted lynx hide fastened about her ; or, it may be, pressing
on the heels of the foaming boar with her hounds in full cry.'

Thus Yenus spoke, and Venus' son replied : — ' No sight or
hearing have we had of any sister of thine, 0 thou — what
name shall I give thee? maiden ; for thy face is not of earth,
nor the tone of thy voice liuman : some goddess surely thou
art. Phoebus' sister belike, or one of the blood of the
nymphs 1 be gracious, whoe'er thou art, and relieve our hard-
ship, and tell us under Mhat sky now, on what realms of
earth we are thrown. Utter strangers to the men and the
place, we are wandering, as thou seest, by the driving of the
wind and of the mighty waters. Do this, and many a victim
shall fall to thee at the altar by this hand of mine.'

Then Yenus : — ' Xay, I can lay claim to no such honour.-.
Tyrian maidens, like me, are wont to carry tlio quiver, and
tie the purple buskin high up the calf. This that you now
see is the Punic realm, the nation Tyrian ami the town
Agenor's ; but on the frontiers are the Libyans, a race ill
to handle in war. The queen is Dida who left her homb
in Tyre to escape from her brother. Lengthy is her talo

123 THE ALNEID.

of wrong, lengthy the windings of its course ; but I will pass
rapidly from point to point. Her husband was Sychseus,
wealthiest of Phosnician landowners, and loved by his poor
wife with fervid passion ; on him her father had bestowed
her in her maiden bloom, linking them together by the
omens of a first bridal. But the crown of Tyre was on
the head of her brother, Pygmalion, in crime monstrouF
beyond the rest of men. They were two, and fury came
between them. Impious that he was, at the very altar of
the palace, the love of gold blinding his eyes, he surprises
Sychaeus with his stealtliy steel, and lays him low, without
a thought fur his sister's passion ; he kept the deed long
concealed, and with many a base coinage sustained the
mockery of false hope in her pining love-lorn heart. But lo !
in her sleep there came to her no less than the semblance of
her unburied spouse, lifting up a face of strange unearthly
pallor ; the ruthless altar and his breast gored with the steel,
he laid bare the one and the other, and unveiled from first to
last the dark domestic crime. Then he urges her to speed her
flight, and quit her home for ever, and in aid of her journey
unseals a hoard of treasure long hid in tlie earth, a mass of
silver and gold which none else knew. Dido's soul was stirred;
she began to make ready her flight, and friends to share it.
There they meet, all whose hate of the tyrant was fell or whose
fear was bitter ; ships, that chanced to lie ready in the harbour,
they seize, and freight with gold. Away it floats over the
deep, the greedy Pygmalion's wealth ; and who heads the
enterprise ? a Avoman ! So they came to the spot where you
now see yonder those lofty walls, and the rising citadel of
Carthage the new ; there they bought ground, which got from
the transaction the name of Byrsa, as much as they could
compass round with a bull's hide. But who are you after all ?
What coast are you come from, or whither are you holding on

BOOK I. 541-397- i = i

your journey ? ' That question he answers thus, uith a heavy
sv']., and a voice fetclied from the bottom of his heart : —

' Fair goddess ! should I begin from the first and proceed
in order, and hadst thou leisure to listen to the chronicle of
our suiferings, eve would first close the Olympian gates and
lay the day to sleep. For us, bound from ancient Troy, if
the name of Troy has ever chanced to pass through a Tyrian
ear, wanderers over divers seas already, we have been driven
by a storm's wild will upon your Libyan coasts. I am -^neas,
styled the good, who am bearing with me in my fleet the gods
of Troy rescued from the foe ; a name blazed by rumour above
the stars. I am in quest of Italy, looking there for an ancestral
home, and a pedigree drawn from high Jove himself. "With
twice ten ships I climbed the Phrygian main, with a goddess
mother guiding me on my way, and a chart of oracles to follow.
Scarce seven remain to me now, shattered by wind and wave.
Here am I, a stranger, nay, a beggar, wantlering over your
Libyan deserts, driven from Europe and Asia alike.' Venus
could bear the complaint no longer, so she thus struck into the
middle of his sorrows : —

'"Whoever you are, it is not, I trow, under the frown of
heavenly powers that you draw the breath of life, thus to have
arrived at our Tyrian town. Only go on, and make your way
fjtraight hence to the queen's palace. For I give you news
that your comrades are returned and your fleet brought back,
wafted into shelter by shifting gales, unless my learning of
augury was vain, and the jiarents who taught me cheats.
Look at these twelve swans exultant in victorious colimin,
which the bird of Jove, swooping from the height of ether,
■was just now driving in confusion over the wide unsheltered
pky ; see now how their line stretches, some alighting on the
ground, others just looking down on those alighted. As they,
thus rallied, ply their whirring wings in sport, spreading their

122 THE ^NEID.

train round the sky, and uttering songs of triumph, even so
your V essels and your gallant crews are either safe in the port,
or entering the haven with sails full spread. Only go on, and
where the way leads you direct your steps.'

She said, and as she turned away, flashed on their sight
her neck's roseate hue ; her ambrosial locks breathed from her
liead a heavenly fragranci ; her robe streamed down to her
very feet ; and in her walk was revealed the true goddess.
Soon as he knew his mother, he pursued her flying steps with
words like these: — 'Why wilt thou be cruel like the rest,
mocking thy son these many times Avith feigned semblances?
Why is it not mine to grasp thy hand in my hand, and hear
and return the true language of the heart 1 ' Such are his up-
braidings, while he yet bends his way to the town. But Venus
fenced them round with a dim cloud as they moved, and
Avrapped them as a goddess only can in a spreading mantle of
mist, that none might be able to see them, none to touch them,
or put hindrances in their path, or ask the reason of their coming.
She takes her way aloft to Paphos, glad to revisit tlie abode she
loves, where she has a temple and a hundred altars, smoking
with Sabsean incense, and fragrant with garlands ever new.

They, meanwhile, have pushed on their way, where the
path guides them, and already they are climbing the hill
which hangs heavily over the citj-, and looks from above on
the towers that rise to meet it. ^neas marvels at the mass
of building, once a mere village of huts ; marvels at the gates,
and the civic din, and the paved ways. The Tyrians are alive
and on fire — intent, some on carrying the walls aloft and up-
heaving the citadel, and rolling stones from underneath by
force of hand ; some on making choice of a site for a dwell-
ing, and enclosing it with a trench. They are ordaining the
law and its guardians, and the senate's sacred majesty. Here
are some digging out havens ; there are others laying deep the

BOOK I. 39S-456. 123

foundations of a theatre, and hewing from the rocks enor-
mous columns, the lofty ornaments of a stage that is to ho.
Such are the toils that keep the commonwealth of hees at Z
Avork in the sun among the flowery meads when summer is
new, Avhat time they lead out the nation's hope, the young
now grown, or mass together honey, clear and flowing, and
strain the cells to bursting with its nectarous sweets, or
relieve those who are coming in of thoir burdens, or collect
a troop and expel from their stalls the drones, that lazy, thrift-
less herd. The work is all fire, and a scent of thyme breathes
from the fragrant honey, ' 0 happy they, whose city is rising
already ! ' cries iEneas, as he looks upward to roof and dome.
In he goes, close fenced by his cloud, miraculous to tell,
threads his way through the midst, and mingles with the
citizens, unperceived of all.

A grove there was in the heart of the city, most plenteous
of shade — the spot where first, fresh from the bufi'eting of
wave and wind, the Punic race dug up the token which
queenly Juno had bidden them expect, the head of a fiery
steed — for even thus, said she, the nation should be renowned
in war and rich in sustenance for a life of centuries. Heie
])ido, Sidon's daughter, was building a vast temple to Juno,
rich in off'erings and in the goddess's especial presence ; of
brass was the threshold with its rising steps, clamped with
brass the door-posts, the hinge creaked on a door of brass.
In this grove it was that first a new object appeared, as
before, to soothe away fear : here it was that yl^neas first
dared to hope that all was safe, and to place a better trust
in his shattered fortunes. For while his eye ranges over each
part under the temple's massy roof, as he waits there for the
queen — while he is marvelling at the city's prosperous star,
the various artist-hands wing with each other, their tasks an 1
the toil they cost, he beholds, scene after scene, the battles of /v^,-

12+ THE AiNEID.

llkili, and the war that Fame Imd already blazed tlie ■wliole
world over — Atreus' sons, and Priam, and the enemy of
hoth, Achilles, He stopped short, and breaking into tears,
' What place is there left 1 ' he cries, ' Achates, Avhat clime on
earth that is not full of our sad story 1 See there Priam,
Here, too, worth finds its due reward ; here, too, there are
tears for human fortune, and hearts that are touched by moc-
tality. Le free from fear : this renown of ours will bring you
some measure of safety.' So sjieaking, he feeds his soul on the
empty portraiture, Avith many a sigh, and lets copious rivers
run down his cheeks. For he still saw how, as they battled
round Perganius, here the Greeks were flying, the Trojan
youth in hot pursuit ; here the Phrygians, at their heels in his
car Achilles, with that dreadful crest. Not far from tliis he
recognises with tears the snowy canvas of Rhesus' tent, which,
all surprised in its first sleep, Tydeus' son was devastating
with wide carnage, himself bathed in blood — see ! he drives
off the fiery steeds to his own camp, ere they have had time
to taste the pastures of Trjy or drink of Xanthus. There in
another part is Troilus in flight, his arms fallen from him —
iuiliapi:)y boy, confronted with Achilles in unequal combat —
hurried away by his horses, and hanging half out of the
euipty car, with his head thrown back, but the reins still in
his hand ; his neck and his hair are being trailed along the
ground, and iiis inverted spear is drawing lines in the dust.
]\[eanwhile to the temple of Pallas, not their friend, were
moving the Trojan dames with locks dishevelled, carrying the
sacred robe, in suppliant guise of mourning, their breasts
bruised with their hands — 4;he goddess was keeping her eyes
riveted on the ground, with her face turned away. Thrice
had Achilles dragged Hector round the walls of Ilion, and was
now selling for gold his body, thus robbed of breath. Then,
indeed, heavy was the groan that he gave from the bottom

BOOK I. 456-515. 125

of Lis heart, Avlicn he saw the spoils, the car, the very body
of his friend, and Priam, stretching out those helpless hands.
Himself, too, he recognises in the forefront of the Achaean
rank.s, and the squadrons of the East, and the arms of the
swarthy jNIcnmon. There, leading the columns of her Ama-
zons, with their moony shields, is Penthesilea in her martial
frenzy, blazing out, the centre of thousands, as she loops up hi-r
protruded breast with a girdle of gold, the warrior queen, and
nerves herself to the shock of combat, a maiden against men.

While these tilings are meeting the wondering eves of
iEneas the Dardan — while he is standing bewildered, and
continues riveted in one set gaze — the queen has moved
towards the temple. Dido, of loveliest presence, with a vast
train of youths thronging round her. Like as on Eurotas'
baidvs, or along the ridges of Cynthus, Diana is footing the
dance, while, attending her, a thousand mountain nymphs
are massing themselves on either side ; she, her quiver on
her shoulder, as she steps, towers over the whole godde?.s
sisterhood, Avhile Latona's bosom thrills silently with delight ;
such was Dido — such she bore herself triumphant through
the miilst, to s^jced the work which had empire for its pro-
spect. Then, at the doors of the goddess, xmder the midmost
vaulting of the temple, with a fence of arms round her, sup-
ported high on a throne, she took lier seat. There slie was
giving laws and judgments to her citizens, and equalising the
burden of their tasks by fair partition, or draughting it by lot,
•when suddenly ./Eneas sees coming among the great crowil
Antheus and Sergestus, and brave Cloanthus, and other of
the Teucrians, whom the black storm had scattered over the
deep, and carried far away to other coasts. Astounded Avas
he, overwhelmed, too, was Achates, all for joy and fear :
eagerly were they burning to join hands with theirs, but the
unexplained mystery confounds their minds. They carry on

126 THE .ENEID.

the concealment, and look out from the hollow cloud that
wraps them, to learn what fortune their mates have had, on
what shore they are leaving their fleet, what is their errand
here — for they were on their way, a deputation from all the
crews, suing for grace, and were making for the temple Avitli
loud cries.

After they had gained an entrance, and had obtained leave
to speak in the presence, Ilioneus, the eldest, thus began,
calm of soul : — ■

' Gracious queen, to whom Jupiter has given to found a
new city, and to restrain by force of law the pride of savage
nations, we, hapless Trojans, driven by the winds over every
sea, make our prayer to you — keep off from our ships tlio
horrors of fire, have pity on a pious race, and vouchsafe a
I nearer view to our affairs. We are not come to carry the
j havoc of the sword into the homes of Libya — to snatch booty
^and hurry it to the shore ; such violence is not in our nature ;
such insolence were not for the vanquished. There is a place
— the Greeks call it Hesperia — a land old in story, strong in
arms and in the fruitfulness of its soil ; the Qinotrians were
its settlers ; now report says that later generations have called
tlie nation Italian, from the name of their leader. Thither
were we voyaging, when, rising with a sudden swell, Orion,
lord of the storm, carried us into hidden shoals, and far away
by the stress of reckless gales over the water, the surge
mastering us, and over pathless rocks scattered us here and
there : a small remnant, we drifted hither on to your shores.
AVhat race of men have we here ? What country is so bar-
barous as to sanction a native usage like this ? Even the
hospitality of the sand is forbidden us — they draw the sword,
and will not let us set foot on the land's edge. If you defy
the race of men, and the weapons that mortals wield, yet
look to have to do with gods, who watch over the right and

BOOK I. 516-572. 127

the wrong. i^iica,s was our king, than whom never man
breathed more just, more eminent in piety, or in Avar and
martial prowess. If the Fates are keeping our liero alive —
if he is feeding on this upper air, and not yet lying down in
death's cruel shade — all our fears arc over, nor need you be
sorry to have maile the first advance in the contest of kindly
courtesy. The realm of Sicily, too, has cities for us, and store
of arms, and a hero-king of Trojan blood, Acestes. Give us
leave but to lay up on shore our storm-beaten fleet, to fashion
timber in your forests, and strip boughs for our oars, that, if
we are allowed to sail for Italy, our comrades and king restored
to us, Ave may make our joyful Avay to Italy and to Latium ;
or, if our safety is swallowed up, and thou, best father of the
Teucrians, art the prey of the Libyan deep, and a nation's
hope lives no longer in lulus, then, at least, we may make
for Sicania's straits, and the houses standing to Avelcome u.--,
Avhence Ave came hither, and may find a king in Acestes.'
Such Avas the speech of Ilioneus ; an accordant clamour burst
.'it once from all the sons of Dardanus.

Then briefly Dido, Avith doAvncast look, makes reply : —
' Teucrians ! unburden your hearts of fear, lay your anxieties
aside. It is the stress of danger and the infancy of my
kingdom that make me put this policy in motion and
protect my frontiers Avith a guard all about. The men
of ^neas and the city of Troy — who can be ignorant of
them 1 — the deeds and the doers, and all the blaze of ,that
mighty Avar 1 Xot so blunt are the Avits we Punic folk mrry
Avith us, not so Avholly does the sun turn his back 01^ our
Tyrian toAvn Avhen he harnesses his steeds. ^Miether you
make your choice of Hesperia the great, and the old realm
of Saturn, or of the borders of Eryx and their king Acestes,
I will send you on your Avay Avith an escort to protect you,
and wi]l fjupply you Avith stores. Or Avould you like to

128 THE MNEID.

settle along with me in my kingdom here? Look at the city
I am building, it is yours, lay up your ships, Trojan and
Tyrian shall be dealt with by me without distinction. Would
to heaven your king were here too, driven by the gale that
drove you hither — ^neas himself ! For myself, I will send
trusty messengers along the coast, with orders to traverse the
furthest parts of Libya, in case he should be shipwrecked and
wandering anywhere in forest or town.'

Excited by her words, brave Achates and father ^Eneas,
too, were burning long ere this to break out of their cloud.
Achates first accosts ^iieas : — ' Goddess-born, what purpose
now is foremost in your mind? All you see is safe, our fleet
and our mates are restored to us. One is missing, whom our
own eyes saw in the midst of the surge swallowed up, all the
rest is even as your mother told us.'

Scarce had he spoken when the cloud that enveloped them
suddenly parts asunder and clears into the open sky. Out
stood iEneas, and shone again in the bright sunshine, his face
and his bust the image of a god, for his great mother had shed
graceful tresses over her son's brow, and the glowing flush of
youth, and had breathed the breath of beauty and gladness
into his eyes, loveliness such as the artist's touch imparts to
ivory, or when silver or Parian marble is enchased with yellow
gold. Then he addresses the queen, and speaks suddenly to
the astonishment of all : — 'Here am I whom you are seeking,
before you. — iEneas, the Trojan, snatched from the jaws of tho
Lib;An wave. O heart that alone of all has found pity for
Troy's cruel agonies — that makes us, poor remnants of Danaan
fury, utterly spent by all the chances of land and sea, destitute
of all, partners of its city, of its very palace ! To pay such a
debt of gratitude. Dido, is more than we can do — more th;in
can be done by all the survivors of the Dardan nation, now
scattered the wide world over. IMay the gods— if there are

BOOK I. 572-633. 129

powers that regard tlie pious, if justice and conscious rectitude
count for auglit anywliere ou earth — may tliey give you the
reward you merit ! What age had the happiness to bring you
forth? what godhke parents gave such nobleness to the world?
"While the rivers run into the sea, while the shadows sweep
along the mountain-sides, while the stars draw life from the
sky, your glory and your name and your praise shall still
endure, Avhatever the land whose call I must obey.' So say-
ing, he stretches out his right hand to his friend llioncus, his
left to Sercstus, and so on to others, gallant Gyas and gallant
Cloanthus.

Astounded was Dido, Sidon's daughter, first at tlie hero's
presence, then at his enormous sufferings, and she bespoke him
thus : — ' What chance is it, goddess-born, that is hunting you
through such a wilderness of perils? what violence throws
you on our savage coasts ? Are you, indeed, the famed iEneas,
whom to Anchises the Dardan, Venus, queen of light and love,
bore by the stream of Simois ? Aye, I remember Teucer coming
to Sidon, driven from the borders of his fatherland, hoping
to gain a new kingdom by the aid of Belus. Lelus, my sire,
was then laying waste the rich fields of Cyprus, and ruling
the isle with a conqueror's sway. Ever since that time I knew
the fate of the Trojan city, and your name, and the Pelasgian
princes. Foe as he was, he would always extol the Teucrians
with signal praise, and profess that he himself came of the
ancient Teucrian stock. Come then, brave men, and make
our dwellings your home. I, too, have had a fortune like
yours, which, after the buffeting of countless sufferings, has
been pleased that I should find rest in this land at last. My-
self no stranger to sorrow, I am learning to succour the
unliappy.' With these Avords, at the same moment she ushers
^neas into her queenly palace, and orders a solemn sacrifice
at the temples of the gods. Meantime, as if this were nought,

I30 THE ,-EXEID.

she sends to his comrades at the shore twenty bidls, a
hundred huge swine with backs all bristling, a hundred
fat lambs with their mother.-^, and the wine-god's jovial
bounty.

But the palace within is laid out with all the splendour of
regal luxury, and in the centre of the mansion they arc
making ready for the banquet ; the coverlets are embroidered,
and of princely purple — on the tables is massy silver, and
chased on gold the gallant exploits of Tyrian ancestors, a
long, long chain of story, derived through hero after hero
ever since the old nation was young.

^neas, for his fatherly love Avould not leave his heart at
rest, sends on Achates with speed to the ships to tell Ascanius
the news and conduct him to the city. On Ascanius all a
fond parent's anxieties are centred. Presents, moreover,
rescued from the ruins of Ilion, he bids hira bring — a pall
stiff with figures of gold, and a veil with a border of yellow
acanthus, adornments of Argive Helen, Avhich she carried
away from Mycense, when she went to Troy and to her
unblessed bridal, her mother Leda's marvellous gift ; the
sceptre, too, which Ilione had once borne, the eldest of
Priam's daughters, and the string of pearls for the neck, and
the double coronal of jewels and gold. "With this to despatch,
Achates was bending his way to the ships.

But the lady of Cythera is casting new wiles, new devices
in her breast, that Cupid, form and feature changed, may
arrive in the room of the charmer Ascanius, and by the
presents he brings influence the queen to madness, and turn
the very marrow of her bones to fire. She fears the two-
faced generation, the double-tongued sons of Tyre ; Juno's
hatred scorches her like a flame, and as night draws on the
care comes back to her. So then with these words she
addresses her winged Love ; — ' My son, who art alone my

BOOK I. 633-C52. 131

strength and my mighty power, my son, who laughest to
scorn our great father's Typlioean tliunderbolts, to thee I fly
for aid, and make suppliant prayer of tliy majesty. How
thy brother iEneas is tossed on the ocean tlic whole world
over 1jy Juno's implacable rancour I need not tell thee — nay,
thou hast often mingled thy grief with mine. lie is now the
guest of Dido, the Phoenician woman, and the spell of a
courtec^s tongue is laid on him, and I fear what may be the
end of taking shelter under Juno's wing ; she Avill never be
idle at a time on which so much hangs. Thus then I am
planning to be first in the field, surprising the queen by
stratagem, and encompassing her with fire, that no poAver
may be able to work a change in her, but that a mighty
passion for -^neas may keep her mine. For the way in
which thou mayest bring this about, listen to what I have
been thinking. The yoimg heir of royalty, at his loved
father's summons, is making ready to go to this Sidonian
city — my soul's darling that he is — the bearer of presents
that have survived the sea and the flames of Troy. Him I
will lull in deep sleep and hide him in my hallowed dwelling
high on Cythera or Idalia, that by no chance he may know
or mar our plot. Do thou then for a single night, no more,
artfully counterfeit his form, and put on the boy's usual look,
thyself a boy, that when Dido, at the height of her joy, shall
take thee into her lap while the princely board is laden and
the vine-god's liqi^or flowing, when she shall be caressing
thee and printing her fondest kisses on thy check, thou
mayest breathe concealed fire into her veins, and steal upon
her with poison.'

At once Love complies with his fond motlier's words, puts
off his wings, and walks rejoicing in the gait of lulus. As
for Ascanius, Venus sprinkles his form all over Avith the
dew of gentle slumber, and carries him, as a goddess may,

132 THE JEN EI D.

lapped in lier bosom, into Idalia's lofty groves, where a
soft couch of amaracus enfolds him with its flowers, and
the fragrant breath of its sweet shade. Meanwhile Cupid
was on his way, all obedience, bearing the royal presents to
the Tyrians, and glad to follow Achates. "When he arrives,
he finds the queen already settled on the gorgeous tapestry of
a golden couch, and occupying the central place. Already
father ^neas, already the chivalry of Troy are flocking in,
and stretchinjj themselves here and there on coverlets of
purple, '^There are servants offering them water for their
hands, and deftly producing the bread from the baskets, and
presenting towels with shorn nap. Within are fifty maidens,
whose charge is in course to pile up provisions in lasting
store, and light up with fire the gods of the hearth. A
hundred others there are, and male attendants of equal
number and equal age, to load the table with dishes, and
set on the cups. The Tyrians, too, have assembled in
crowds through the festive hall, and scatter themselves as
invited over the embroidered couches. There is marvelling
at xEneas' presents, marvelling at lulus, at those glowing
features, Avhere the god shines through, and those words which
he feigns so Avell, and at the robe and the veil with the yellow
acanthus border. Chief of all, the unhappy victim of coming
ruin cannot satisfy herself with gazing, and kindles as she
looks, the Phoenician woman, charmed with the boy and the
presents alike. He, after he has hung long in Eneas' arms
and round his neck, gratifying the intense fondness of the sire
he feigned to be his, finds his way to the queen. She is
riveted by him — riveted, eye and heart, and ever and anon
fondles him in her lap— poor Dido, unconscious how great a
god is sitting heavy on that wretched bosom. But he, with
his mind still bent on his Acidalian mother, is beginning to
efface the name of Sychoeus letter by letter, and endeavouring .^

BOOK I. 692-751. 133

to surprise by a living passion affections long torpid, and a
heart long unused to love.

"When the banquet's first lull was come, and the board
removed, then they set up the huge bowls and wreathe the
wine. A din rings to the roof — the voice rolls through
those spacious halls ; lamps hang from the gilded ceiling,
burning briglitly, and flambeau-fires put out the night. Then
the queen called for a cup, heavy with jewels and gold, ami
filled it with unmixed wine ; the same Avhich had been used
by Belus, and every king from Eelus downward. Then
silence was commanded through the hall. ' Jupiter, for thou
hast the name of lawgiver for guest and host, grant that this
day may be auspicious alike for the Tyrians and the voyagers
from Troy, and tliat its memory may long live among our
posterity. Be with us, Bacchus, the giver of jollity, and
Juno, the queen of our blessings ; and you, tlie lords of Tyre,
may your goodwill grace this meeting.' She said, and poured
on the table an offering of the wine, and, the libation made,
touched the cup first with her lips, then handed it to Bitias,
rallying his slowness. Eagerly he quaffed the foaming goblet,
and drenched himself deep with its brimming gold. Then
came the other lords in order. lopas, the long-haired bard,
takes his gilded lyre, and fills the hall with music ; he, whose
teacher Avas the mighty Atlas. Ilis song is of the wanderings
of the moon and the agonies of the sun, whence sprung man's
race and the cattle, whence rain-water and fire ; of Arcturus
and the showery Hyades, and the twin Bears ; why the winter
suns make such haste to dip in ocean, or what is the retarding
cause that bids the nights move slowly. Plaudits redouble
from the Tyrians, and the Trojans follow the lead. With
varied talk, too, she kept lengthening out the night, unhappy
Dido, drinking draughts of love long and deep, as she asked
much about Priam, about Hector much ; now what Avere the

1-34 THE /EN BID.

arms in ^vllicll Aurora's son liad come to battle ; now what
Diomede's steeds were like ; now how great was Achilles.
' Or rather, gentle gn;est/ cries she, ' tell lis the story from the
very first — all about the stratagems of the Danaans, and the
sad fate of your country, and your own wanderings — for this
is now the seventh summer that is waftincr vou a wanderer
still over every land and wave.'

( 133 )

LOOK II.

Every tongtic was Implied, and every ej'c fixed intentlj',
\vlien, from liis high couch, fatlier iEneas began thus : —

• Too cruel to be told, great queen, is the sorrow you bid me
revive — how the poAver of Troy and its empire met with
piteous overthrow from the Danaans — the heartrending sights
which my own eyes saw, and the scenes where I had a large
part to play. "\Mio, in such recital — he he of the Myrmidons
or the Dolopes, or a soldier of nithless Ulysses' band — would
refrain from tears 1 And now, too, night is rusliing in dews
down the steep of heaven, and the setting stars counsel repose.
Still, if so great be your longing to acquaint yourself with our
disasters, and hear the brief tale of Troy's last agony, though
my mind shudders at the remembrance, and starts back in
sudden anguish, I will essay the task.

' Broken by war and foiled by destiny, the chiefs of the
Danaans, now that the flying years were numbering so many,
build a horse of mountain size, by the inspiration of Pallas'
skill, and interlace its ribs with planks of fir. A vow for
their safe journey home is the pretext : such the fame that
spreads. In this they secretly enclose chosen men of sinew,
picked out by lot, in the depth of its sides, and fill every
corner of those mighty caverns, the belly of the monster, with
armed Avarriors.

'In sight of Troy lies Tenedos, an island of wide-spread
renown, powerful and rich wliile Priam's empire yet was,

136 rilE JEN BID.

now a mere bay, a treacherous roadstead for ships. Thus
far they sail out, and hide themselves on the forsaken
coast. "We thought them gone off with a fair wind for
Mycenae. And so all Trojan land shakes off the agony of
years. Open fly the gates ; what pleasure to go and see the
Dorian camp, and the places deserted, and the shore forsaken !
Yes, here were the troops of the Dolopes ; here the tent of
that savage Achilles ; here the ships were drawn up ; here
they used to set the battle in array. Pome of us are standing
agaze at the fatal offering to the virgin goddess, and wonder-
ing at the hugeness of the horse ; and Thynioetes takes the
lead, urging to have it dragged within the walls, and lodged
in the citadel, either with treasonable intent, or that the fate
of Troy had begun to set that way. Eut Capys, and the men
of saner judgment, bid us send this snare of the Danaans, this
suspicious present, headlong into the sea, or light a fire under
and burn it ; or, if not that, to pierce and probe that hollow
womb that might hide so much. The populace, unstable as
ever, divides off into opposite factions.

'Throwing himself before all, with a great crowd at his
back, Laocoon, all on fire, comes running down the steep of
the citadel, crying in the distance, " What strange madness
is this, my unhappy countrymen 1 Tliink you that the enemy
has sailed off, or that a Danaan could ever make a present
that had no treachery in it ? Is this your knowledge of
Ulysses? Either the Achceans are shut up and hiding in
this piece of wood, or it is an engine framed against our walls,
to command the houses and come down on the city from
above, or there is some other secret trick. jNlen of Troy, put
no faith in the horse. Whatever it be, I fear a Greek even
Avith a gift in his hand." With these words he hurled a
mighty spear with all his force against the beast's side, tlie
jointed arch of its belly. It lodged, and stood quivering ; the

BOOK II. 23-S3. 137

■womb shook again, and an echo and a groan rang hollow from
its caverns ; and then, had but heaven's destiny and man's
judgment been un warped, he had led us to carry sword and
havoc into the Argive lurking-place, and Troy would now be
standing, and thou, Priam's tall fortress, still in being.

' Meanwhile, see ! some Dardan shepherds are dragging
with loud shouts before the king a young man with his hands
tied behind him, who had thrown himself, a stranger, across
their way, to compass this very thing, and thus let the Achroans
into Troy — bold of heart, and ready for either issue, either to
play off his stratagem, or to meet inevitable death. From all
sides, in eager curiosity, the Trojan yoxith come streaming
round, vying in their insults to the prisonerJ Now tlien,
listen to the tale of Danaan fraud, and from one act of guilt
learn what the whole nation is. There as he stood, with ail
eyes bent on him, bewildered, defenceless, and looked round
on the Phrygian bands, " Alas ! " he cries, " where is there a
spot of earth or sea that will give me shelter now ? or what
last resource is left for a wretch like me — one who has no
place among the Danaans to hide my head — Avhile the children
of Dardanus no less are in arms against me, crying for bloody
vengeance 1 " At that piteous cry our mood was changed, and
every outrage checked We encourage him to speak — to tell
us what his parentage is ; what his business ; what he has to
rest on as a prisoner. " All, my lord, shall be avoAved to you
truly, whatever be the issue. I will not deny that I am an
Argive by nation ; this to begin with. Nor if Fortune has
made a miserable man out of Sinon, shall her base schoolimr
make him deceiver and liar as well. If haply in talk your
cars ever caught the name of Palamedes, of the house of Belus,
and his wide-spread renown — his, whom under false accu-
sation, an innocent man, charged by the blackest calumny,
all because his voice was against the war, the Pelasgians

138 THE ^NEID.

sent down to death, and now, when he is laid in darkness,
lament him too late — know that it was as his comrade and
near kinsman I was sent by a needy father to a soldier's life
in earliest youth. While he stood with his royal state unim-
paired, an honoured member of the kingly council, T, too,
enjoyed my measure of name and dignity ; but after the
jealousy of false Ulysses — you know the tale — removed him
from this upper clime — dashed from my height, I dragged
on life in darkness and sorrow, and vented to my OAvn heart
my rage at the disaster of my innocent friend. Nor did I
keep silence — madman that I was ! No, if ever the chance
were given me — if ever I came back with glory to my native
Argos — I vowed myself his avenger, and my words stirred up
bitter enmity. From that time my ruin began ; from that
time Ulysses was ever threatening me with some new charge,
ever scattering abroad words of mystery, and looking for allies
to plot with. Nor did he rest till by Calchas' agency — but
wliy recall this unwelcome story with no end to gain ? Why
waste your time, if you hold all Achteans alike, and to hear
that is to hear enough 1 Take the vengeance you should have
taken long ago. It is just what would please the Ithacan,
and earn a large reward from the sons of Atreus ! "

' This makes us burn, indeed, to explore and inquire into
the reason of his tale, not knowing that crime could be so
monstrous, and Pelasgian art so cunning. He resumes, in
faltering tones, spoken from his false heart : —

' " Often have the Danaans desitrned to turn their back on

O

Troy and accomplish a retreat, and abandon the war that had
wearied them so long ; and would they had dons it ! As
often has the fierce inclemency of the deep barred their
purpose, and the south wind frightened them from sailing.
Especially, when this horse was set up at last, a compacted
mass of maple planks, the thunder of the storm-clouds was

BOOK II. S3-142. 139

heard the whole firmament over. In our perplexity we send
Eurypylus to inquire of Phoebus's oracle, and this is the
gloomy message that he brings back from the shrine : ' With
blood it was ye appeased the winds, even Avith a maiden's
slaughter, when first ye came, Danaans, to the shore of Ilion.
"With blood it is ye must buy your return, and propitiate
lieaven by the life of an Argive ! ' Soon as the news reached
the public- ear, every mind was cowed, and a cold shudder
thrilled the depths of every heart. For whom has Fate a
summons ? Whom does Apollo demand as his prey ? 'And
now the Ithacan, witli boisterous vehemence, drags forward
the prophet Calchas, insists on knowing what that announce-
ment of heaven's will may mean ; and many even then were
the prophetic mouths that warned me of the trickster's cruel
villany, and many the eyes that silently foresaw the future.
Ten days the seer holds his peace, and keeps his tent,
refusing to utter a word that should disclose any name or
sacrifice any life. At last, goaded by the Ithacan's vehement
clamour, he breaks into a concerted utterance, and dooms me
to the altar, 'All assented, well content that the danger which
each feared for himself should be directed to the extinction
of one poor wretch. And now the day of liorror was come ;
all was being ready for my sacrifice — the salt cakes for the
fire, and the fillet to crown my brow — when I escaped, I own
it, from death, and broke my bonds, and hid myself that night
in a muddy marsh in the covert of the rushes, while they
should be sailing, in the faint hope that they had sailed.
My old country, I never expect to see it again, nor my
darling children, and the father I have longed so for ! 'No !
they are likely to visit them with vengeance for my escape,
and expiate this guilt of mine by taking their poor lives. 0 !
by the gods above, and the powers that know when truth
is spoken, if there is yet abiding anywhere anions nien such

i^o THE .ENEID.

R tiling as unsullied faith, I conjure you, have pity on this
weight of suffering, have pity on a soul that is unworthily
borne clown ! "

' Such a tearful appeal gains him his life, and our compas-
sion too, Priam himself is first to bid them relieve the man
of his manacles and the chains that bound him, and addresses
him in words of kindness, " "Whoever you are, from this time
forth have done with the Greeks, and forget them. I make
you my man, and bid you answer truly tlie questions I shall
put. What do they mean by setting up this huge mountain
of a horse ? "VVho was the prompter of it ? What is their
object? Some religious offering, or some engine of war? "

' Thus Priam : the prisoner, with all his Pelasgian craft and
cunning about him, raised his unfettered hands to the stars : —

' " You, eternal fires, with your inviolable majesty, be my
witnesses ; you, altars and impious swords, from which I fled ;
and you, hallowed fillets, which I wore for the sacrifice ! I
am free to break all the sacred ties that bound me to the
Greeks. I am free to treat them as my foes, and disclose all
their secrets to the light of day, all the claims of the land of
my birth notwithstanding. Only do thou abide by thy
plighted word, and preserve faith with thy preserver, land of
Troy, if he tells thee true, and makes thee large returns.

' " The strength of the Danaan hopes, and the soul of their
confidence in the war they plunged into, has ever been the
aid of Pallas. From the time when Tydeus' impious son and
Ulysses, that coiner of villany, dared to drag away from her
hallowed temple the fateful Palladium, slaughtering the guards
who watched the citadel's height, thenceforth there was an
ebb and a backsliding in the Danaan hopes, their forces
shattered, the goddess estranged. Nor were the portents
dubious that betokened Tritonia's change of mood. Scarce
Avas the image lodged in the camp, irtien flashing fire glowed

BOOK II. 143-202. 14)

in her uplifted eyes, and salt sweat trickled over lier frame,
and thrice of lierself she leaped from the ground, marvellous
to relate, shield and quivering lance and all. Forthwith
Calchas sounds the note for flight over the perilous deep, for
that Pergamus can never he razed by Argive steel, unless they
go to Argos for fresh omens, and bring back the divine aid
•which their crooked keels bore Avith them aforetime over the
sea. And now this their voyage home to Mycenae is to get
new forces and gods to sail with them ; they will recross the
deep, and come upon you unforeseen. Such is Calchas
scanning of the omens. As for this image, he warned them
to set it up in exchange for the Palladium, and, in expiation
of injured deity, to atone for their fatal crime. Calchas, how-
ever, bade them raise it to the vast height you see, knitting
plank to plank, till it was brought near to heaven, that it
might not be admitted at the gates or dragged within the walls,
and thus restore to the people the bulwark of their old worship.
For if your hand should profane Minerva's offering, then (said
he) a mighty destruction — may the gods turn the omen on his
head ere it falls ou yours ! — would come on the empire of
Priam and the Phrygian nation ; but if these hands of yours
should help it to scale your city's height, Asia would roll the
mighty tide of invasion on the walls of Pelops, and our pos-
terity would have to meet the fate he threatened."

* Such was the stratagem — the cursed art of perjured Sinon
— that gained credence for the tale; and such the victory
won over us by wiles and constrained tears — over us, whom
not Tydeus' son, nor Achilles of Larissa, nor ten years of war
subdued, nor a fleet of a thousand sail.

' And now another object, greater and far more terrible, is
forced on my poor countrymen, to the confusion of their vai-
prophetic souls. Laocoon, drawTi by lot as Keptune's priest,
was sacrificing a mighty bull at the wonted altar — when

142 THE .^NEID.

behold from Tenedos, over the still deep — I shudder as T
recount the tale — two serpents coiled in vast circles are seen
breasting the sea, and moving side by side towards the shore.
Their breasts rise erect among tlie waves ; their manes, of
blood-red hue, tower over the water, the rest of them floats
behind on the main, trailing a huge undulating length ; the
brine foams and dashes about them ; they are already on shore,
in the plain — Avith their glowing eyes bloodshot and fiery,
and their forked tongues playing in tlieir hissing mouths,
"We fly all ways in pale terror : they, in an nnswerving column,
make for Laocoon, and first each serpent folds round one of
his two sons, clasping tlie youthful body, and greedily devoiir-
ing the poor limbs. Afterwards, as the father comes to the
rescue, weapon in hand, they fasten on him and lash their
enormous spires tight round him — and now twice folded round
his middle, twice embracing his neck with their scaly length,
they tower over him "with uplifted head and crest. He is
straining with agonising clutch to pull the knots asunder, his
priestly fillets all bedewed with gore and black poison, and
raising all the while dreadful cries to heaven — like the bellow-
ing, when a Avounded bull darts away from the altar, dashing
off from his neck the ill-aimed axe. Eut the tAvo serpents
escape glidingly to the temple top, making for the height
Avherc ruthless Tritonia is enthroned, and there shelter them-
selves under the goddess's feet and the round of her shield.
Then, indeed, everv breast is coAved and thrilled through bv a
ncAV and strange terror — CA'ery voice cries that Laocoon has
been duly punished for his crime, profaning the sacred Avood
Avitli his Aveapou's point, and hurling his guilty lance against
the back of the steed. Let the image be draAA'n to her teraj^le,
and let prayer be made to the goddess, is the general cry — Ave
break through the Avails and open the toAvn Avithin. All gird
them to the Avork, putting Avheels to run easily under its feet,

BOOK II. 203 -2&7. 1^3

and throwing lengths of hompon tie round its neck. It scales
tlie ■walls, that fateful engine, with its armed brood — bo^-s and
unwedded girls, standing about it, chant sacred hymns,
delighted to toucli the rope. In it moves, rolling with
threatening brow into the heart of the city. 0 my country !
O Ilion, home of the gods ! 0 ye, Dardan towers, Avith your
martial fame ! Yes — four times on the gateway's very thres-
hold it stopped, four times the arms rattled in itsAvomb. On,
however, we press, unheeding, in the blindness of our frenzy,
and lodge the ill-starred portent in our hallowed citadel. Even
then Cassandra unseals to speak of future fate those lips which
by the god's command no Trojan ever believed — while we, alas !
we, spend the day that was to be our last in crowning tho
temples of the gods with festal boughs the whole city through.
' Meantime round rolls the sky, and on comes night from
the ocean, wrapping in its mighty shade earth and heaven and
Myrmidon wiles : through the city the Trojans are huslied in
careless repose, their tired limbs in the arms of sleep. Already
was the Argive host on its way from Tenedos, through tho
friendly stillness of_the quiet moon, making for the well-
known shore, when see I the royal shij) mounts its fire signal,
and Sinon, sheltered by heaven's partial decree, stealthily .sets
at large the Danaans, hid in that treacherous womb, and
opens the pine-Avood door : they as the horse opens are restored
to upper air, and leap fortli with joy from the holluw timber,
Thessander and Sthenelus leading the way, and the dreaded
Ulysses, gliding down the lowered rope, and Achamas and
Thoas, and Xeoptolemus of Peleus' line, and first Machaon,
and Menelaus, and the framer of the cheat himself, Epeus.
They rush on the town as it lies drowned in sleep and revelry.
The watchers are put to the sword, the gates thrown open,
and all are welcoming their comrades, and uniting with tho
conspiring bands.

144 THE mNEID.

' It was just the time Avlien first slumber comes to beal
numan suffering, stealing on men by heaven's blessing Avith
balmiest influence. Lo ! as I slept, before my eyes Hector,
in deepest sorrow, seemed to be standing by me, shed-
ding rivers of tears — mangled from dragging at the car,
as I remember him of old, and black with gory dust,
and with his swollen feet bored by the thong. Ay me !
what a sight Avas there ! what a change from that Hector of
ours, who comes back to us clad in the spoils of Achilles, or
from hurling Phrygian fire on Danaan vessels ! with stiffened
beard and hair matted with blood, and those wounds fresli
about him, which fell on him so thickly round his country's
walls. Methought I addressed him first with tears like his
own, fetching from my breast the accents of sorrow — " 0 light
of Dardan land, surest hope that Trojans ever had ! What
delay has kept you so long 1 From Avhat clime is the Hectoi
of our longings returned to us at last ? 0 the eyes with which,
after long months of death among your people, months of
manifold suffering to Troy and her sons, spent and weary, we
look upon you now ! What unworthy cause has marred the
clear beauty of those features, or why do I behold these
wounds ? " He answers nought, and gives no idle heed to my
vain inquiries, but with a deep sigh, heaved from the bottom
of his heart — "Ah ! fly, goddess-born ! " cries he, "and escape
from these flames — the walls are in the enemy's hand — Troy
is tumbling from its summit — the claims of country and king
are satisfied — if Pergamus could be defended by force of hand,
it would have been defended by mine, in my day. Your
country's worship and her gods are what she entrusts to you now
— take them to share your destiny — seek for them a mighty city,
which you shall one day build when you have wandered the
ocean over." With these words he brings out Queen Vesta with
her lillets and the ever-burning fire from the secret shrine.

7300/: //. 268-3:8. 143

'Meanwhile the city in its various quarters is being ecn-
vulsed -with agony — and ever more and more, though my
father Anchises' palace was retired in the privacy of embosom-
ing trees, the sounds deepen, and the alarm of battle
swells. I start up from sleep, mount the sloping roof,
and stand intently listening — even as. when among standing ^ .
corn a spark falls with a fierce south wind to fan it, or the
impetuous stream of a mountain torrent sweeps the fields,
sweeps the joyous crops and the bullocks' toil, and drives the
woods headlong before it, in perplexed amazement a shepherd
takes in the crash from a rock's tall summit. Then, indeed,
all doubt was over, and the wiles of the Danaans stood con-
fessed. Already Deiphobus' palace lias fallen with a mighty
overthrow before the mastering fire-god — already his neigh-
bour Ucalegon is in flames — the expanse of the Sigean sea
shines again with the blaze. Up rises at once the shouting
of men and the braying of trumpets. To arms I rush in
frenzy — not that good caiise is sho\vn for arms — but to
muster a troop for fight, and run to the citadel with my
comrades is my first burning impulse — madness and rago
drive my mind headlong, and I think how glorious to die
with arms in my hand.

' But see ! Panthus, escaped from an Achaean volley, Panthus,
Othrys' son, priest of Phoebus in the citadel, comes dragging
along with his own hand the vanquished gods of his worship
and his young grandchild, and making distractedly for my
door. " How goes the day, Panthus 1 What hold have we
of the citadel 1 " The words were scarcely uttered when with
a groan he replies, " It is come, the last day, the inevitable
hour — on Dardan land no more Trojans ; no more of Ilion,
and the gi-eat renown of the sons of Teucer ; Jove, in his
cruelty, has carried all over to Argos ; the town is on fire,
and the Danaans are its masters. There, planted high in the

146 THE ALNEID.

heart of tlie city, the horse is pouring out armed men, and
i^inon is flinging about fire, in the insolence of conquest ; some
are crowding into the unfolded gates — thousands, many as
ever came from huge Mycenae; some are blocking up the
narrow streets, with weapons pointed at all comers ; the sharp
steel with its gleaming blade stands drawn, ready for slaughter ;
hardly, even on the threshold, the sentinels of the gates are
attempting resistance, in a struggle where the powers of war
are blind."

'At these words of the son of Othrys, and lieavjenXjvill
thus expressed, I plunge into the fire and the battle, following
the war-fiend's yell, the din of strife, and the shout that rose
to the sky. There join me Rhipeus and Epytus, bravest in
fight, crossing my way in the moonlight, as also Hypanis and
Dymas, and form at my side ; young Coroebus, too, Mygdon's
son ; he happened to be just then come to Tro}', Avith a frantic
passion for Cassandra, and was bringing a son-in laAv's aid to
Priam and his Phrygians — poor boy ! to have given no heed to
the warnings of his heaven-struck bride ! Seeing them gathered
in a mass and nerved for battle, I begin thereon : — " Young
hearts, full of unavailing valour, if your desire is set to follow a
desperate man, you see what the plight of our affairs is — gone
in a body from shrine and altar are the gods who upheld this
our empire — the city you succour is a blazing ruin ; choose
we then death, and rush we into the thick of the fight. The
one safety for vanquished men is to hope for none." These
3>. words stirred their young spirits to madness: then, like
ravenous wolves in night's dark cloud, driven abroad by the
blind rage of lawless hunger, M'ith their cubs left at home
waiting their return with parched jaws, among javelins, among
foemen, on we go with no uncertain fate before us, keeping
our way through the heart of the town, while night flaps over
us its dark, overshadowing wings. "Who could unfold in

BOOK 11. 328-391. T47

Bpeecli tlie carnage, the horrors of that niyht, or make his
tears keep pace with our suflfering? It is an ancient city,
falling from the height where she queened it man}- a year ;
and heaps of unresisting bodies are lying confusedly in the
streets, in the houses, on the hallowed steps of temples. Nor
is it on Teucer's sons alone that bloody vengeance lights.
There are times when even the vanquished feel courage rush-
ing back to their hearts, and the conquering Danaans fall.
Everywhere is relentless agony ; everywhere terror, and the
vision of death in many a manifestation.

' First of the Danaans, with a large band at his back,
Andro"eos crosses our way, taking us for a troop of his friends
in his ignorance, and hails us at once in words of fellow-
ship: " Come, my men, be quick. Why, what sloth is keep-
ing you so late ? Pergamus is on fire, and the rest of us are
spoiling and sacking it, and here are you, but just dis-
embarked from your tall ships." He said, and instantly,
for no reply was forthcoming to reassure him, saw that
he had fallen into the thick of the enemy. Struck with
consternation, he drew back foot and tongue. JH^__as a
man who at unawares has trodden on a snake among thorns
and briers in his walk, and recoils at once in sudden alarm
from the angry uplifted crest and the black swelling neck,
so Androgeos, appalled at the sight, was retiring. But we
rush on him, and close round, weapons in hand ; and, in their
ignorance of the ground, and the surprise of tlieir terror, they
fall before us everywhere. Fortune smiles on our first
encounter. Hereon Coroebus, flushed with success and daring,
" Come, my friends," he cries, " where Fortune at starting
directs us to the path of safety, and reveals herself as our ally,
be it ours to follow on. Let us change shields, and see if
Danaan decorations will fit us. Trick or strength of hand,
who, in dealing with an enemy, asks which 1 They shaU arm

148 THE JENEID.

us against themselves." So saying, he puts on Androgens'
crested hehn, and his shield with its goodly device, and
fastens to his side an Argive sword. So does Rhipeus, so
Dymas too, and all our company, with youthful exultation,
each arming himself out of the new-won spoils. On we go,
mixing with the Greeks, under auspices not our own, and
many are the combats in which we engage in the blindness of
night, many the Danaans whom we send down to the shades.
They fly on all hands : some to the ships, making at full
speed for safety on the shore ; others, in the debasement of
terror, climb once more the horse's huge sides, and hide
themselves in the womb they knew so well.

* Alas ! it is not for man to throw himself on the gods
against their will !

' Lo ! there was a princess of Priam's house being dragged
by her dishevelled hair from the temple, from the very shrino
of Minerva, Cassandra, straining her flashing eyes to heaven
in vain— her eyes — for those delicate hands were confined by
manacles. The sight was too much for tlie infuriate mind of
Coroebus : rushing to his doom, he flung himself into the
middle of the hostile force. One and all, we follow, close our
ranks, and fall on. And now, first from the temple's lofty
top we are overwhelmed by a shower of our own countrymen's
darts, and a most piteous carnage ensues, all along of the
appearance of our arms and our mistaken Grecian crests.
Then the Danaans, groaning and enraged at the rescue of the
maiden, rally from all sides, and fall on us. Ajax, in all his
fury, and the two sons of Atreus, and the whole array of the
Dolopes — evenas one day when the tempest is broken loose,
and Avind meets wind — west, and south, and east exulting in his
orient steeds — there is crashing in the woods, and Nereus, in a
cloud of foam, is plying his ruthless trident, and stirring up the
sea from its very bottom. Such of the foe, moreover, as in the

BOOK II. 391-450. 149

darkness of night we had driven routed through the gloom —
thanks to our stratagem — and scattered the whole city over,
rally again : they are the first to recognise the imposture of
shield and weapon, and to mark the different sound of our
speech. All is over — we are overwhelmed by numhers : first
of all, Coroebus is stretched low ; his slayer Peneleos, his
place of death the altar of the Goddess of Arms ; slain, too,
is Khipeus, the justest and most righteous man in Troy —
but heaven's will is not ours — down go Ilypanis and Dymas
both, shot by their friends ; nor could all your acts of piety,
good Panthus, shield you in your fall ; no, nor the fillet of
Apollo on your brow. Ye ashes of Ilion, and thou, funeral
fire of those I loved, witness ye that in your day of doom I
shrank from no Danaan dart, no hand-to-hand encounter ;
nay, that had my fate been to fall, my hand had earned it
well. We are parted from the rest, Iphitus, Pelias, and I.
Iphitus, a man on whom years were already pressing ; Pelias,
crippled by a wound from Ulysses — all three summoned by
the shouting to Priam's palace.

' Here, indeed, the conflict was gigantic — just as if the rest
of the war were nowhere — as if none were dying in the whole
city beside : even such was the sight we saw — tlie war-god
raging untamed, the Danaans streaming up to the roof, the
door blockaded by a long penthouse of shields. The scaling
ladders are clasping the walls ; close to the very door men
are climbing, with their left hands presenting the buckler to
shelter them from darts, while with their right they are clasp-
ing the battlements. The Dardans, on their part, are tearing
up from the palace turret and roof — such the weapons with
which, in their dire extremity, in the last death-struggle, they
make ready for their defence — gilded rafters, the stately orna-
ments of ehler days, they are hurling down ; while others,
their swords drawn, are stationed at the doors at the bottom,

I50 THE MNEID.

and guarding them in close array. The fire revived within
me, to bring succour to the royal roof, and relieve those brave
men, and breathe new daring into the vanquished.

' A door there was, a hidden entrance, a tlioroughfare
through Priam's palace, a postern which you leave in the rear ;
by it the hapless Andromache, Avhile yet the throne was
standing, used often to repair unattended to her husband's
parents, and pidl the boy Astyanax into his grandsire's pres-
ence. Through it I make my way to the summit of the roof,
whence the wretched Teucrians were hurling darts without
avail. There was a tower standing precipitous, its roof reared
high to the stars, whence could be seen all Troy, and the
Danaan fleet, and the Achaean camp; to this we applied our
weapons, just where the lofty flooring made the joining inse-
cure ; we wrench it from its eminence, we have toppled it
over — down it falls at once, a huge crashing ruin, and tumbles
far and wide over the Danaan ranks. But others fill their
place ; while stones and every kind of missile keep raining
unabated.

'There in the entry, at the very gate, is P^-rrhus in his
glory, gleaming with spear and sword, and with all the
brilliance of steel. Even as against the daylight a serpent
gorged with baleful herbage, whom winter's cold of late was
keeping swollen underground, now, his skin shed, in new
life and in the beauty of youth, rears his breast erect, and
wreathes his sliining scales, towering to the sun, and flashes
in his mouth his three-forked tongue. "With him gigantic
Periphas and Automedon, his armour-bearer, once Achilles'
charioteer, with him the whole chivalry of Scyros press to
the walls, and hurl up fire to the roof. Himself among the
foremost, a two-edged axe in hand, is burstincr through tho
stubborn door and forcing from their hinges the valves copper-
sheathed ; see ! now he lias cut out a plank and delved inlo

BOOK II. 450-509. 151

that stout lieart of oak, and made a wide gaping window in
the middle. There is seen the house within, and the long
vista of the hall; there is seen the august retirement of
Priam and the monarchs of past days, and armed warriors
are disclosed standing in the entrance.

' But the palace within is a confused scene of shrieking and
piteous disorder ; the vaulted chambers wail from their hollow
depths with female lamentation ; the noise strikes the golden
stars above. The terror-stricken matrons are running to and
fro through the spacious courts, clinging claspingly to the gates
and printing them with kisses. On presses Pyrrhus with all
his father's might ; neither barrier of oak nor yet living guard
can resist him ; the door gives way under the thick strokes of
the battery, and the valves are torn from their hinges and
brought down. Force finds its way ; the Danaans burst a
passage, rusli in, and slaughter those they meet, and the whole
wide space is flooded with soldiers. "With far less fury, when i.
the river, all foam, has broken the prison of its banks and
streamed with triumphant tide over the barriers set to check
it, down it comes tumbling along the corn-fields, and along
the Avhole country sweeps away herd and stall. With my
own eyes I saw Neoptolemus, mad with carnage, and the two
Atridai on the palace-floor. I saw Hecuba and her hundred
daughters-in-law, and Priam at the altar, polluting Avith his
blood the flames he had himself made holy. Those fifty
marriage-chambers, the splendid promise of children's children,
doors gorgeous with barbaric gold and plundered treasure, all
sank in dust. "Where the fire flags, the Danaans are masters.

' Perhaps, too, you may be curious to hear the fate of Priam.
When he saw his city fallen and captured, the doors of his
palace burst open, the foe in the heart of his home's sanctuary,
poor old man ! helplessly and hopelessly he puts about his
shoulders, trembling with age, his armour, long disused, and

152 THE MNEID.

girds on liis unavailing sword, and is going to liis doom among
the tliick of the foe. In tlie midst of the palace, under the
naked height of the sky, stood a great altar, and by it a bay
tree of age untold, leaning over the altar and enfolding the
household gods in its shade. Here about the altar Hecuba
and her daughters, all helpless, like doves driven headlong
doAvn by a murky tempest, huddled together and clinging tO'
the statues of the gods, were sitting. But when she saw Priam
— yes, Priam — wearing the arms of his youth — " What mon-
strous thought," cries she, "my most wretched spouse, has
moved you to gird on these weapons? or to what are you
hurrying ? It is not help like this, not protections like those
you wear, that the crisis needs. No, not even if my lost
Hector were now at our side. Come, join us here at last ; this
altar shall be a defence for us all, or we will die together."
With these words she took him to where she Avas, and lodged
his aged frame in the hallowed resting-place.

' But, see ! here is Polites, one of Priam's sons escaped from
Pyrrhus' murderous hand, through showers of darts and masses
of foemen, flying down the long corridors and traversing the
empty courts, sore and Avounded, while Pyrrhus, all on fire,
is pursuing him with a deadly stroke, his hand all but grasping
him, his spear close upon him. Just as at last he Avon his
Avay into the view^gind jgi^esence of liis_parents, doAvn he fell
and poured out his life in a gush of blood. Hereon Priam,
though hemmed in by death on all sides, could not restrain
himself, or control voice and passion. "Aye," cries he, "for
a crime, for an outrage like this, may the gods, if there is any
sense of right in heaven to take cognizance of such deeds,
give you the full thanks you merit, and pay you your due
rcAvard ; you, Avho have made me look with my own eyes on
my son's death, and stained a father's presence Avith the sight
of blood. But he Avhom your lying tongue calls your sire,

BOOK II. 510-571. 153

Achilles, dealt not thus -with Priam his foe — he had a cheek
that could crimson at a suppliant's rights, a suppliant's
honour. Hector's lifeless body he gave back to the tomb,
and sent me home to my realms in peace." So said the poor
old man, and hurled at him a dart unwarlike, unwounding,
Avhich the ringing brass at once shook off, and left hanging
helplessly from the end of the shield's boss. Pyrrhus retorts :
"You shall take your complaint, then, and carry your news
to my father, Pelides. Tell him about my shocking deeds,
about his degenerate Neoptolemus, and do not forget. Now
die." With these words he dragged hiiu to the very altar,
palsied and sliding in a pool of his son's blood, wreathed his
left hand in his hair, and with his right flashed forth and
sheathed in his side the sword to the hilt. Such was the
end of Priam's fortunes, such the fatal lot that fell upon him,
with Troy blazing and Pergamus in ruins before his eyes —
iipon him, once the haughty ruler of those many nations and
kingdoms, the sovereign lord of Asia ! There he lies on the
shore, a gigantic trunk, a head severed from the shoulders,
a body without a name.

' Now, for the first time grim horror prisoned me round —
I was wildered — there rose up the image of my dear father,
as I saw the king, his fellow in age, breathing out his life
through that ghastly wound. There rose up Creusa unpro-
tected, my house, now plundered, and the chance to which
I had left my little lulus. I cast my eyes back and look
about to sec what strength there is round nie. All had
forsaken me, too tired to stay ; they had. leapt to the ground,
or dropped helplessly into the flames^ And now I Avas there
alone. When lodged in the temple of Vesta, and crouching
mutely in its darkest recess, the daughter of Tyndareus meets
my eye ; the brilliant blaze gives light to my wandering feet
and ranging glance. Yes, she in her guilty fears, dreading

154 THE MNEID.

at once the Teucrians -whom the overthrow of Perganius had
made her foes, and the vengeance of the Danaans, and the
wrath of the husband she abandoned — she, the common fiend
of Troy and of her country, had hid herself away, and was
sitting in hateful solitude at the altar. My spirit kindled
into flame — a fury seized me to avenge my country in its fall,
and to do justice on a wretch. " So she is to see Sparta and
her native Mycenae again in safety, and is to move as a queen
in a triumph of her own ? She is to look upon her lord and
her old home, her children and her parents, with a crowd of
our Trojan ladies and Phrygian captives to wait on her?
Shall it be for this that Priam has died by the sword, that
Troy has been burnt with fire, that the Dardan shore has
gushed so oft with the sweat of blood ? IS«^o, never — for
though there are no proud memories to be won by vengeance
on a woman, no laurels to be reaped from a conquest like this,
yet the extinction of so base a life and the exaction of
vengeance so merited will count as a praise, and it will be a
joy to have glutted my spirit with the flame of revenge and
slaked tlie thirsty ashes of those I love." Such were the
wild words I was uttering, such the impulse of my infuriate
heart, when suddenly there appeared to me, brighter than I
had ever seen her before, and shone forth in clear radiance
through the night, my gracious mother, all her deity confessed,
with the .same mien and stature by which she is known to
the dwellers in heaven. She seized me by the hand and
stayed me, seconding her action with these words from her
roseate lips : " My son, what mighty agony is it that stirs up
this untamed passion? What means your frenzy? or whither
has fled your care for me ? "Will you not fir.'^t see where you
have left your father Anchises, spent with age as he is ?
whether your wife, Creusa, be yet alive, and your child,
Ascanius ? All about them the Grecian armies are ranging to

BOOK II. 571-630. 155

and fro, and were not my care exerted to rescue tliem, ere
this they had been snatclied by the flamg, devoured by the
foenian's sword. It is not the hated beauty of the daughter
of Tyndareus, the Spartan woman — not tlie reviled Paris.
No, it is heaven, unpitying heaven that is overturning this
great empire and levelling Troy from its summit. See here —
for I will take away Avliolly the cloud whose veil, cast over
your eyes, dulls your mortal vision and darkles round you damp
and thick — do you on your part shrink in naught from your
mother's commands, nor refuse to obey the instructions she
gives. Here, where you see huge masses rent asunder, and
stones wrenched from stones, and blended torrents of smoke and
dust, is I^Teptune with his mighty trident shaking the walls
and upheaving the very foundations ; here is Juno, cruellest of
foes, posted at the entry of the Sca?,an gate, and summoning in
tones of fury from the ships her confederate band, herself girt
with steel like them. Look behind you — there is Tritonian
Pallas, seated already on the summit of our towers, in the
lurid glare of her storm-cloud and grim Gorgon's head. The
great Father himself is nerving the Danaans with courage
and strength for victory — himself leading the gods against
our Dardan forces. Come, my son, catch at flight Avhile you
may and bring the struggle to an end. I will not leave you,
till I have set you in safety at your father's door." She
had ceased, and veiled herself at once in night's thickest
sliadows. I see a vision of awful shapes — mighty presences
of gods arrayed against Troy.

'Then, indeed, I beheld all llion sinking into flame, and
Keptune's city, Troy, overturned from its base. !^ven_as
an ancient asli on the mountain-top, which woodmen have
hacked with steel and repeated hatchet strokes, and are trying
might and main to disldlge — it keeps nodding menacingly, its
leafy head palsied and sliaken, till at last, gradually over-

155 THE .ENEID.

borne by wound after wound, it has given its deatb-groan,
and fallen uprooted in ruined length along the hilL I come
down, and, following my heavenly guide, thread my way
through flani£S and foemen, while weapons glance aside and
flames retire.

' Now when at last I had reached the door of my father's
house, that old house I knew so well, my sire, whom it
was my first resolve to carry away high up the hills —
Avho Avas the first object I sought — refuses to survive the
razing of Troy and submit to banishment. "You, whose
young blood is untainted, Avhose strength is firmly based and
self-sustained, it is for you to think of flight. For me, had
the dwellers in heaven willed me to prolong my life, they
would have preserved for me my home. It is enough and
more than enough to have witnessed one sack, to have once
outlived the capture of my city. Here, O here as I lie, bid
farewell to my corpse and begone. I will find me a warrior's
death. The enemy will have mercy on me, and my spoils
will tempt him. The loss of a tomb Avill fall on me lightly.
Long, long have I been a clog on time, hated of heaven and
useless to earth, from the day when the father of gods and
sovereign of men blasted me with the wind of his lightning,
and laid on me the finger of fliime."

' Such the words he kept on repeating and continued un-
sliaken, while we were shedding our hearts in tears — Creusa,
my wife, and Ascanius and my whole house, imploring my
father not to be bent on dragging all with him to ruin,
and lending his weight to the avalanche of destiny. I3ut
lie refuses, and will not be moved from his jxirpose or his
home. Once more I am plunging into battle, and choosing
death in the agony of my wretchedness — for Avhat could
wisdom or fortune do for me now ? What, my father ? that
I could stir a step to escape, leaving you behind? was tliis

BOOK II. 630-685. 157

your expectation 1 could aufjlit so shocking fall from a parent's
lips ? No — if it is the will of heaven that naught of this
mighty city should he spared — if your purpose is fixeil, and
you find pleasure in throwing yourself and yours on Troy's
blazing pile, the door stands open for the death you crave.
Pyrrhus will be here in a moment, fresh from bathing in
Priam's blood — Pyrrhus, who butchers the son before the
father's face, who butchers the father at the altar. Gracious
mother ! was it for this that thou rescuest me from fire and
sword — all that I may see the foe in the heart of my home's
sanctuary — may see my Ascanius, and my father, and my
Creusa by them sacrificed in a pool of each other's blood ?
My arms, friends, bring me my arms ! the call of the day of
death rings in the ears of the conquered. Give me back to
the Danaans, let me return and renew the combat. Never
shall this day see us all slaughtered unresisting.

' Now I gird on my sword again, and was buckling and fit-
ting my shield to my left arm, and making my way out of the
house — wlien lo ! my wife on the threshold began to clasp
and cling to my feet, holding out my little lulus to his father.
" If it is to death you are going, then carry us with you to
death and all, but if experience gives you any hope in the
arms you are resuming, let your first stand be made at your
home. To whom, tliink you, are you leaving your little lulus
— your father, and me who was once styled your Avife ? "

* Thus she was crying, while her moaning filled the house,
when a portent appears, sudden and marvellous to relate.
Even while the hands and eyes of his grieving parents were
upon him, lo, a flickering tongue of flame on the top of lulus'
head was seen to shoot out light, playing round his soft curly
locks with innocuous contact and pasturing about his temples.
We are all hurrv and alarm, shaking out his blazing hair and
quenching the sacred fire with water from the spring — bnt

//?.

i:8 THE yENEID.

Ancliises iny father raised his eyes in ecstasy to heaven, direct-
ing hand and voice to the stars : " Almighty Jove, if any
prayer can how thy will, look down on ns — 'tis all I crave —
and if our piety have earned requital, grant us thy succour,
father, and ratify the omen we now see." Scarce had the old
man spoken, when there came a sudden peal of thunder on
the left, and a star fell from heaven and swept through the
gloom with a torchlike train and a hlaze of light. Over the
top of the house we see it pass, and mark its course along the
sky till it huries itself lustrously in Ida's wood — then comes
a long furrowed line of light, and a sulphurous smoke fills the
space all about. Then at length overcome, my father raises
himself towards the sky, addresses the gods, and does rever-
ence to the sacred meteor : " Xo more, no more delay from
me. I follow your guidance, and am already in the way by
which you would lead me. Gods of my country ! preserve
my house, preserve my grandchild. Yours is this augury —
your shield is stretched over Troy. Yes, my son, I give way,
and shrink not from accompanying your flight." He said —
and by this the blaze is heard louder and louder through the
streets, and the flames roll their hot volumes nearer. " Come
then, dear father, take your seat on my back, my shoulders
shall support you, nor shall I feel the task a burden. Fall
tilings as they may, we twain will share the peril, share the
deliverance. Let my little lulus walk by my side, while my
wife follows our steps at a distance. You, our servants,
attend to what I now say. As you leave the city there is a
mound, where stands an ancient temple of Ceres all alone,
and by it an old cypress, observed these many years by the
reverence of our sires. This shall be our point of meeting in
one place from many quarters. You, my father, take in your
hand these sacred things, our country's household gods. For
me, just emerged from this mighty war, with the stains of

BOOK II. c 87-7 50. 159

carnage fresli upon me, it were sacrilege to toucli them, till I
liave cleansed me in the running stream."

' So saying, I spread out my shoulders, bow my neck, cover
them with a robe, a lion's tawny hide, and take up the precious
burden. My little lulus has fastened his hand in mine, and
is following his father with ill-matched steps, my wife comes
on behind. On we go, keeping in the shade — and I, who
erewhile quailed not for a moment at the darts that rained
upon me or at the masses of Greeks that barred my path,
now am scared by every breath of air, startled by every sound,
fluttered as I am, and fearing alike for him Avho liolds my
hand and him I carry. And now I was nearing the gates,
and the whole journey seemed accomplished, w'hen suddenly
the noise of thick trampling feet came to my ear, and my
father looks onward through the darkness. " Son, son," he
cries, "fly: they are upon us. I distingui.<h the flashing of
their shields and the gleam of their steel." In this alarm
some unfriendly power perplexed and took away my judg-
ment. For, while I was tracking places where no track was,
and swerving from the Avonted line of road, Avoe is me !
destiny tore from me my wife.Creusa. Whether she stopped,'
or strayed from the road, or sat down fatigued, I never knew
— nor was she ever restored to my eyes in life. Nay, I did',
not look back to discover my loss, or turn my thoughts that
way till we had come to the mound and temple of ancient
Ceres ; then at last, when all were mustered, she alone was
missing, and failed those who should have travelled with her,
her son and husband both. "UTiom of gods or men did my
upbraiding voice spare 1 what sight in all the ruin of the city
made my heart bleed more 1 Ascanius and Anchises my
father and the Teucrian household gods I give to my com-
rades' care, and lodge them in the winding glade. I repair
again to the city and don my shining armour. My mind is

i6o THE ALNEID.

set to try every hazard again, and retrace my path through the
whole of Troy, and expose my life to peril once more. First
I repair again to the city walls,' and the gate's dark entry
by which I had passed out. I track and follow my footsteps
back through the niglit, and traverse the ground with my eye.
Everywhere my sense is scared by the horror, scared by the
very stillness. Next I betake me home, in the hope, the
faint hope that she may have turned her steps thither. The
Danaans had broken in and Avere lodged in every chamber.
All is over — the greedy flame is wafted by the wind to the
roof, the fire towers triumphant — the glow streams madly
heavenwards. I pass on, and look again at Priam's palace
and the citadel. There already in the empty cloisters, yes,
in Juno's sanctuary, chosen guards, Phoenix and Ulysses, the
terrible, were watching the spoil. Here are gathered the
treasures of Troy torn from blazing shrines, tables of gods,
bowls of solid gold and captive vestments in one great heap.
Boys and mothers stand trembling all about in long array.

' JSTay, I was emboldened even to fling random cries through
the darkness. I filled the streets with shouts, and in my
agony called again and again on my Creusa with unavailing
iteration. As I was thus making my search and raving
unceasingly the whole city through, the hapless shade, the
spectre of my own Creusa appeared in my presence — a like-
ness larger than the life. I Avas aghast, my hair stood erect,
my tongue clove to my mouth, while she began to address me
thus, and relieve my trouble with words like these : " Whence
this strange pleasure in indulging frantic grief, my darling
husband ? It is not without Heaven's will that these things
are happening : that you should carry your Creusa with you
on your journey is forbidden by fate, forbidden by the mighty
ruler of heaven above. You have long years of exile, a vast
expanse of ocean to traverse — and then you will arrive at tlie

BOOK II. 750 S04. 161

land uf Ilesperia, wlicre TiLor, Lydia's river, rolls las gentle
volumes through rich and cultured plains. There you have a
smiling future, a kingdom and a royal bride waiting your
coming. Dry your tears for Creusa, your heart's choice though
she be. I am not to see the face of Myrmidons or Dolopes in
their haughty homes, or to enter the service of some Grecian
matron — I, a Dardan princess, daughter by marriage of Venus
the immortal. Ko, I am kept in this country by heaven's
mighty mother. And now farewell, and continue to love
your son and mine." Thus having spoken, spite of my tears,
Sj)ite of the thousand things I longed to say, she left me and
vanished into unsubstantial air. Thrice, as I stood, I essayed
to fling my arms round her neck — thrice the phantom escaped
the hands that caught at it in vain — impalpable as the wind,
fleeting as the wings of sleep.

' So passed my night, and such Avas my return to my com-
rades. Arrived there, I find with wonder their band swelled
by a vast multitude of new companions, inatrons and warriors
both, an army mustered for exile, a crowd of the wretched.
From every side they were met, prepared in heart as in fortune
to follow me over the sea to any land where I might take
them to settle. And now the morning star was rising over
Ida's loftiest ridge with the day in its train — Danaan sentinels
were blocking up the entry of the gates, and no hope of succour
appeared. I retired at last, took up my father, and made for
the mountains.

( I62 )

EOOK III.

'After that it had seemed well to the powers above to over-
throw Asia's fortunes and Priam's guiltless nation ; after that
llion fell headlong from its pride, and Troy, which Xeptune
reared, became one levelled smoking ruin, we are driven by
auguries from heaven to look elsewliere for the exile's home
in lands yet unpeopled. We build us a fleet under the
shadow of Antandros, and the range of our own Phrygian
Ida, all uncertain whither fate may carry us, where it may be
our lot to settle, and muster men for sailing. Scarcely had
summer set in, when my father, Anchises, Avas bidding us
spread our sails to destiny. Then I give my last tearful look
to my country's shores and her harbours, and those plains
where Troy once stood but stands no longer. A banished
man, I am wafted into the deep with my comrades and my
son, my household gods and their mighty brethren.

' In the distance lies the land of the war-god, inhabited,
in vast extent — the Thracians are its tillers — subject erewhile
to Lycurgus' savage sway, bound by old hospitality to Troy,
their household gods friends of ours, while our star yet shone.
Hither I am Avafted, and on the bending line of coast trace
the outline of a citv, a commencement made in an evil hour,
and call the new nation ^neadae, after my own name.

' I was sacrificing to my parent, Dione's daughter, and
the rest of the gods, that they might bless the work I
had begun, and was slaying to the heavenly monarch of the

BOOK III. 1-50. 163

powers above a bull of shining whiteness on llio shore. It
happened, that there was a mound near, on whose top were
plants of cornel, and a myrtle bristling thick with sjiear-
like wands, I drew near, and essayed to pull up from the
ground the green forest growth, that I might have leafy
boughs wherewith to shadow the altar, when I see a portent
dreadful and marvellous to tell. For the first tree that I pull
up from the soil, severing its roots, from that tree tricklo
drops of black blood, staining the earth with gore. For me,
a freezing shudder palsies my frame, and my chilled blood
curdles with affright. Again I go on to pluck the reluctant
fibres of a second tree, and thus probe the hidden cause to the
bottom ; as surely from the bark of that second tree the black
blood follows. Much musing in my mind, I began to call on
the nymphs of the wood, and Gradivus, our father, patron of
the land of Thrace, that they might duly turn the appearance
to good, and make the heavy omen light. But when I come
to tear up a third spear-shaft Avith a still greater effort, strain-
ing with my knees against the sand which pressed on them — ■
ought I to tell the tale or hold my peace? — a lamentable
groan is heard from the bottom of the mound, and the utter-
ance of a human voice reaches my ear : " Why, -^neas, manglo
a M-retch like me ? Spare me at length in my grave — spare
those pious hands the stain of guilt. It was not an alien
to you that Troy bore in bearing me — it is no alien's blood
that is trickling from the stem. Ah ! fly from this land of
cruelty, fly from this shore of greed, for I am Folydorus,
Here I lie, pierced and buried by a growing crop of spears that
has shot into sharp javelins. "

' Then, indeed, terror, blank and irresolute, came over me — »
I was aghast — my hair stood erect, my tongue clove to my
mouth. Yes, this Polydorus had long ago been sent secretly
by Priam, unliappy tlien as ever, Avith a vast weight of gold,

i54 THE mXEID.

to be Lroiiglit up by the king of Tlirace, when he had ah'cady
come to despair of the arms of Dardania, and saw the siege
folding closer round his city. When the power of the
Thracians had been broken, and their star set, the Thracian
followed Agamemnon's fortunes, and joined the standard of
the conqueror — every tie of duty is snapped — he murders
Polydorus, and by violence possesses himself of the gold.
Cursed lust of gold, to what dost thou not force the heart of
man? After the cold siiuddering had ceased to tingle in my
marrow, I lay this portent from heaven before the select senate
of our nation, and ]iix_father_as their .chief, and ask them
what they thiidc. All are of the same mind, to depart from
tlie land of crime, to leave the home of violated friendship, and
indulge our fleet with the gales that wooed it. So Ave give
Polydorus a solemn funeral : earth is heaped high upon his
mound ; there stand the altars reared to his manes, in all the
woe of dark fillets and sad-coloured cypress: and round them
are daughters of Ilion, their hair unbound in mourner fashion :
we offer bowls of new milk warm and frothing, and dishes of
consecrated blood : so we lay the spirit to rest in its grave,
and with a loud voice give the farewell call.

' Then, when the deep first looks friendly, and the winds
offer a smooth sea, and the south's gentle whisper invites us to
the main, our crews haul down their ships and crowd the
shore. We sail out of the harbour, land and town leaving us
fast. There is a sacred country with water all round it, chief
favourite of the mother of the Xereids and the god of the
iEf^ean. Once it drifted among the coasts and seaboards round
about, till the heavenly archer in filial gratitude moored it to
the rock of Myconos and to Gyaros, and gave it to be a fixed
dwelling-place henceforth, and to laugh at the Avinds. Hither
I sail : here it is that in a sheltered harbour our weary crews
find gentlest Avelcome. We land, and Avorship the city of

BOOK III. so-ioS. 165

Apollo. King Anius, king of men at once and priest of
Plicebus, his temples Avreathed with fillets and hallowed bay,
comes running np ; in Anchi>e3 he owns an old friend, we knit
hand to hand in hospitality and enter his roof.

' Behold me now Avorshipping the temple of the god, built
of ancient stone. "Give us, god of Thymbra. a home that
Ave can call our own : give ns weary men a walled habitation,
a posterity, a city that will last : keep from ruin Troy's second
Pergamus, all that was left by the Danaans and their ruthless
Achilles ! Who is our guide ? "Whither Avouldst thou havo
ns go 1 where set up our roof-tree 1 Vouchsafe us a response,
great father, and steal Avith poAver upon our souls ! "

' Scarce had I spoken, Avhen methought suddenly came
a trembling on the whole place, tcniple-gate and hallowed
bay, a stir in the mountain from height to depth, a mut-
tering from the tripod as the door of the shrine flew open.
"We fall loAV on earth, and a A'oice is Avafted to our ears :
" Sons of Dardanus, strong to emlure, the land Avhich first
gave you birth from your ancestral tree, the same land shall
Avelcome you back, restored to its fruitful bosom : seek for
your old mother till you find her. There it is that the house
of ^'Eueas shall set up a throne over all nations, they, and
their children's children, and those that shall yet come after."
Tlius Phoebus ; and a mighty burst succeeds of Avild multitu-
dinous joy, all asking as one man Avhat that city is — Avhither
is Phoebus calling the Avanderers, and bidding them return.
Then my father, revolving the traditions of men of old;
"Listen," he cries, "lords of Troy, and learn Avhere your
liopes are. Crete lies in the midst of the deep, the island of
mighty Jove. Tliere is !Mount Ida, and there the cradle of our
race. It has a hundred peopled cities, a realm of richest
plenty. Thence it Avas that our first father, Teuccr, if I
rightlv recall wliat I have heard, came in the lx>ginning to

i66 THE .^NEID.

the Ehoetean coast, and fixed on the site of empire : Ilion and
tlie towers of Pergamus had not j-et been reared : the people
dwelt low in the valley. Hence came our mighty mother, the '
dweller on Mount Cybele, and the symbols of the Corybants,
and the forest of Ida : hence the inviolate mystery of her
worship, and the lions harnessed to the car of their queen.
Come, then, and let us follow where the ordinance of heaven
jjoints the way : let us propitiate the winds, and make for the
realm of Gnossus — the voyage is no long one — let but Jupiter
go Avith us, and the third day will land our fleet on the Cretan
shore." He said, and offered on the altar the sacrifice tliat
Avas meet — a bull to N^eptune, a bull to thee, beauteous
Apollo — a black lamb to the storm-wind, to the favouring
Zephyrs a white one.

' Fame flies abroad that King Idomeneus has been driven
to quit his paternal realm, that the shores of Crete are
abandoned, houses cleared of the enemy, dwellings standing
empty to receive us. So we leave Ortygia's harbour, and
fly along the deep, past Naxos' bacchant' mountains, and
green Donysa, Olearos, and snowy; Paros, and tlie Cyclades
sprinkled over the waves, and seas thick sown with islands.
Up rises the seaman's shout amid strain and struggle — each
encourages his comrades, " For Crete and our forefathers,
ho ! " A wind gets up from the stern and escorts us on our
way, and at length we are wafted to the Curetes' time-
honoured shore.

'And now the site is chosen, and I am rearing a city's
walls and calling it Pergamia : the new nation is proud
to bear the name of the old : I bid tlieni love hearth and
liome, and raise and roof the citadel. Ah'cady the ships
liad been hauled up high and dry on the shore, the crews
were busied with marriage and tilling the new country, and I
was appointing laws to live by, and houses to dwell in — wlien

BOOK III. 108-164. 167

BudJenly there came on the human frame a wasting sickness,
shed from the whole tainted expanse of the sky, a piteous
Llight on trees and crops, a year charged with death. There
were men leaving the lives they loved, or dragging with them
tlie bodies that burdened them, while Sirius baked the fields
into barrenness, tlie lierbage was parching, the corn was
sickening, and would not yield its food. Eack again to
Phoebus and his Ortygian oracle over the sea my father bids
us go, and there sue for grace, asking the god to what haven
he means to bring our overtoiled fortunes, whence he orders
us to seek for help in our sufferings — whither to direct our
course.

' It was night and all living things on earth Avere in the
power of sleep, when methought the sacred images of the
gods, the Phrygian household deities, whom I had borne
away with me from Troy, even from the midst of the blazing
town, stood before my eyes as I lay in slumber, clear in a
flood of light, where the full moon was streaming through the
windows of tlie house. Then they began to address me thus,
and relieve my trouble with words like these : " The answer
which Apollo has ready to give you a\ hen you reach Ortygia,
he delivers here, sending us, see, of his oAvn motion to your
very door. We, the followers of } ou and your fortune since
Dardanland sunk in flame — we, the comrades of the fleet
which you have been guiding over the swollen main — we it
is that will raise to the stars the posterity tliat shall come
after you, and crown your city with imperial sway. Ee it
yours to build mighty walls for mighty dwellers, and not
abandon the task of flight for its tedious length. Change
your settlement : it is not this coast that tlie Delian god
moved you to accept — not in Crete that Apollo bade you
sit down. 'Ko, there is a place — the Greeks call it Hesperia
• — a land old in story, strong in arms and in the fruitfulnesa

i68 THE ^NEID.

of its soil — the CEnotrians were its settlers. Now report says
that later generations have called the nation Italian from the
name of their leader. Tliat is our true liome : thence sprung
Dardanus and father lasius, the first founder of our line.
Quick ! rise, and tell the glad tale, which brooks no question,
to your aged sire : tell him that he is to look for Corythus
and the country of Ausonia. Jupiter bars you from the iields
of Dicte." Thus astonished by visions and voices of heaven
— for sleep it was not : no — niethought I saw them face to
face, their wreathed locks and their features all in full view ;
and a cold sweat, too, trickled down my whole frame. I leap
from the bed, and direct upturned hand and voice to heaven,
and pour on the hearth the undefilcd libation. The sacrifice
paid, with joy I inform Anchises, and expound the whole
from first to last. He owns the double pedigree and the rival
ancestors, and his own new mistake about the two old coun-
tries. Then he says : " !My son, trained in the school of Troy's
destiny, Cassandra's Avas the one voice which used to chant to
me of this chance. Now I recollect, this was the fortune she
presaged as appointed for our line, calling often for Hesperia,
often for the land of Italy. But could any one think that
Teucriaus would ever reach the Hesperian shore ? Could
Cassandra's prophesying in those days gain any one's credence ]
Let us give way to Phoebus, and follow the better course
enjoined." He said, and with one consent we gladly obey.
So we quit this settlement as we quitted the last, and leaving
a few behind, set sail, and make our hollow bark fly over the
vast world of waters.

' Soon as the ships had gained the mid-sea, and land was
no more to be seen, sky on every side, on every side ocean,
then came a murky storm-cloud and stood over my head,
charged with night and winter tempest, and darkness ruffled
the billow's crest. At once the winds lay the sea in ]icap=,

BOOK III. 165-228. 169

and the waters rise mountains high : a scattered fleet, we are
tossed upon the vast abyss : clouds enshrouded the day, and
dank night robbed us of the sky, wliile fire flaslies momently
from the bursting clouds, We are dashed out of our track,
and wander blindly over the blind waters. Nay, even
Palinurus owns he cannot tell day from night in a heaven
like this, or recollect the footpath in the watery wilderness.
Three dreary suns, blotted by blinding darkness, we wander
on the deep : three nights with never a star. On the fourth
day, at last, land Mas first seen to rise, and mountains with
curling smoke wreaths to dawn in distant prospect. Down
drop the sails : we rise on our oars : incessantly the crews,
straining every nerve, toss the foam and sweep the blue.

' Escaped from the sea, I am first welcomed by the coast of
the Strophadcs— the Strophades are known by the name
Greece gave tliem, islands in the great Ionian, wliich fell
Celseno and the rest of the Har^)ies have made their home,
ever since Phineus' doors were closed against them, and fear
drove them from the board which once fed them. A more
baleful portent than this — a fiercer plague of heaven's ven-
geance never crawled out of the Stygian flood. Birds with
maiden's faces, a foul discharge, crooked talons, and on their
cheeks the pallor of eternal famine.

' On our arrival hero, and entering the harbour, see ! we
behold luxuriant herds of oxen grazing dispersedly in the
fields, and goats all along the grass, with none to tend them.
On we nish, sword in hand, inviting the gods and Jove him-
self to share the spoil M-itli us : and then on the winding
shore pile up couches for the banquet, and regale on the
dahity fare. But on a sudden, with an appalling swoop from
the hills, the Harpies are upon us, flapping their wings Avith a
mighty noise — they tear the food in pieces, and spoil all with
their filtliy touch, while fearful screeches blend with foal smells.

170 THE MNEID.

Again, in a deep retreat under a liollow rock, with trees and
crisp foliage all about us, we set out the board and put new
fire on new altars. Again, from another quarter of the sky,
out of their hidden lair, comes the troop, all rush and sound,
flying about the prey with their hooked talons, tainting the
food with their loathsome mouths. I give the word to my
comrades to seize their arms and wage war with the fell tribe.
As I ordered they do — they arrange their swords in hiding
about the grass, and cover and conceal their shields. So soon
as the noise of their swoop was heard along the winding
shore, Misenus, from his lofty watch-tower, makes the hollow
brass sound the alarm. On rush my comrades, and essay a
combat of a new sort, to spoil with their swords the plumage
of these foul sea-birds. But no violence will ruffle their
feathers, no wounds pierce their skin : they are off in rapid
flight high in the air, leaving their half-eaten prey and tlieir
filthy trail behind them. One of them, Ceheno, perches on a
rock of vast height — ill-boding prophetess — and gives vent to
words like these : " What, is it war, for the oxen you have
slain and the bullocks you have felled, true sons of Laomedon ?
is it war that you are going to make on us, to expel us, blame-
less Harpies, from our ancestral realm ? Take then into your
minds these my words, and print them there. The prophecy
which the Almighty Sire imparted to Phoebus, Phoebus Apollo
to me, I, the chief of the Furies, make known to you. For
Italy, I know, you are crowding all sail : well, the winds shall be
at your call as you go to Italy, and you shall be free to enter its
harbours : but you shall not build walls round j'our fated city,
before fell hunger and your murderous wrong against us drive
you to gnaw and eat up your very tables." She said, and her
wings carried her swiftly into the wood. But for my friends,
a sudden terror curdled their blood, their hearts died within
them ; no more arms — no, we must sue for srace, with vows

BOOK III. 225-292. 171

and prayers, be the creatures goddesses or fell and loathsome
birds. And my father Anchises, spreading his hands from
tlie shore, invokes the mighty powers, and ordains meet sacri-
fice— " Great gods, forefend these menaces ! Great gods, avert
a chance like this, and let your blessing shield your worship-
pers ! " Then he bids us tear our moorings from the shore,
and uncoil and stretch our ropes.

I ' The winds swell our sails, we scud over the foaming
surge, where gale and pilot bid us go. Now rising from the
wave are seen the woods of Zacynthos, and Dulichium, and
Samos, and the tall cliffs of Neritos : we fly past the rocks of
Ithaca, Laertes' realm, breathing a curse for the land that
nursed the hard heart of Ulysses. Soon, too, the storm-
capped peaks of Leucata dawn on the view, and their Apollo,
the terror of sailors. In our weariness we make for him,
and enter the little town : our anchors are thrown from the
prow, our sterns ranged on the coast.

* So now, masters of the land beyond our hope, we per-
form lustrations to Jove, and set the altars ablaze with
our vows, and solemnise tlic shores of Actium with the
native games of Troy. My comrades strip, and practise the
wrestle of the old countrj', all slippery with oil : what joy
to have passed in safety by all those Argive cities, and held
on our flight through the heart of the foe ! Meanwhile the
sun rolls round the mighty year, and the north winds of icy
winter roughen the sea. A shield of hollow brass, once borne
by the great Abas, I fasten up full on the temple gate, and
signalise the deed with a verse : " These arms are the offering
of iEneas, won from his Danaan conquerors." Then I give
the word to leave the haven and take seat on the benches.
Each vying with each, the crews strike the water and sweep
the marble surface. In due course we hide from view the
airy summits of Phseacian land, coast the shore of Epirus,

172 THE .ENEID.

enter the Chaonian haven, and approacli Buthro turn's lofty
tower.

' Here a rumour of events past belief takes hold of our
ears — that Ilelenus, son of Priam, is reigning among Grecian
cities, lord of the uife and crown of Pyrrhus, Achilles' very
son, and that Andromache had again been given to a hus-
band of her own nation. I was astounded : my heart
kindled Avith a strange longing to have speech of my oj|l
friend, and learn all about this wondrous stroke of fortune.
So I advance into the country from the haven, leaving
fleet and coast behind, at the very time wlieu Andro-
mache, before the city, in a grove, by the wave of a mock
Simois, was celebrating a yearly banquet, the offering of
sorrow, to the dead, and invoking her Hector's shade at a
tomb called by his name, an empty mound of green turf
which she had consecrated to him with two altars, that she
might have the privilege of weeping. Soon as her wild eye
saw me coming with the arms of Troy all about me, scared
out of herself by the portentous sight, she stood chained to
eaith while yet gazing — life's warmth left her frame — she
faints, and after long time scarce finds her speech :-f^" Is it a
real face that I see ? are those real lips that bring me news ?
Goddess-bom, are you among the living? or, if the blessed
light has left you, where is my Hector?" She spoke — her
tears flowed freely, and the Avhole place Avas filled with her
shrieks. Few, and formed with labour, are the words I
address to her frenzied ear, broken and confused the accents
1 utter : — " Aye, I live, sure enough, and through the worst
of fortunes am dragging on life still. Doubt it not, your eye
tells you true. Alas ! on what chance have you alit, fallen
from the height where your first husband throned you ? What
i^mile has Fortune bright enough to throw back on Hector's
Andromache? is it Pyrrhus' bed you are still tending?" Sb.e

BOOK III. 292-3:2. 173

dropped her eyes, aud spoke -willi bated breath : — " 0 blest
pre-eminently over all, Priam's virgin daughter, bidden to die
at the grave of her foe, under Troy's lofty walls ! she that
had not to brook the chance of the lot, or, a slave and a
captive, to touch the bed of her lord and conqueror ! "While
"\ve, after the burning of our city, carried over this sea and
that, have stooped to the scorn, the youthful insolence of
4|^hilles' heir, the slave-mother of his child ; he, after this,
goes in quest of Leda's Hermione and her Spartan alliance,
and gives me over to Helenus, the bondwoman to be the bond-
man's mate ! Ilim, however, Orestes, fired by desperate passion
for a ravished bride, and maddened by the frenzy-fiend of
crime, surprises at unawares, and slays at his sire's own altar.
At Xeoptolemus' death a portion of this kingdom passed to
Ilelenus, Avho called the fields Chaonian, and the land itself
Chaonia, from Chaon, their Trojan namesake, and crowned, as
you see, these heights with a new Pergamus, the citadel of
Ilion. Lut you — what Aviiid, what destiny has shaped your
voyage ? "Wliat god has driven you on a coast which you
know not to be ours ? AVhat of the boy Ascanius ? is he alive
and breathing upper airl he, whom you on that night at
Troy — say, can his boyish mind feel yet for the mother ho
has lost? Is he enkindled at all to the valour of old days,
the jirowess of a grown man, by a father like /Eneas, an
uncle like Hector?"

' Such were the sorrows she kept pouring out, weeping
long and fruitlessly, when Priam's noble son, Helenus, presents
himself from the city, with a train of followers, and knows
his friends again, and joyfully leads them to his home, many
a tear interrupting his utterance. As I go on, I recognise a
miniature Troy, a Pergamus copied from the great one, a dry
rivulet the namesake of Xanthus, and throw my arms round a
Scsean gate. ]My Trojan comrades, too, are made free of the

174 THE MNEID.

friendly to^vn. The king made entertainment for them in
spacious cloisters. There, in the midst of the hall, they were
pouring libations from cups of wine, their meat served on
gold, and goblets in their hands.

' And now suppose a day past, and yet another day : the
breeze is inviting the sail, the swelling south inflating the
canvas, when I accost the prophet with these words, and put
to him the question I tell you : — " True Trojan born, heave||fe
interpreter,^ whose senses inform you of the stars, and of the
tongue of birds, and of the omens of the flying wing, tell me
now — for revelation has spoken in auspicious words of the
whole of my voyage, and all the gods have, urged me Avith one
voice of power to make for Italy, and explore that hidden
clime. One alone, the Harpy Celasno, forebodes a strange
portent, too horrible to tell, denouncing fierce vengeance and
unnatural hunger. Tell me then, Avhat perils do I shun first,
or what must I observe to surmount the tremendous hardships
before me ? " Then Helenus first implores the favour of
Heaven by a solemn sacrifice of bullocks, and unbinds the
fillet from his consecrated brow, and with his own hand leads
me to thy temple, Phoebus, my mind lifted from its place by
the effluence of divine power; which done, that priestly
mouth chants these Avords from its prophetic lips : —

' " Goddess-bom — for that presages of miglity blessing are
attending you over the deep is clear beyond doubt — such is
the casting of the lot of fate by heaven's king as he rolls
event after event — such the ordained succession — a few things
out of many, to make your voyage through strange Avaters
safer, your settlement in Ausonia's haven more assured. My
speech shall unfold to you but a feAV — for the rest the fatal
sisters keep from Helenus' knoAvledge, and Saturnian Juno seals

^ It will be observed that Mr. Conington has missed a line in his
translation here. — [Ed.]

BOOK III. 353-413. i;

■>

his lips. First then for Italy, which you think close at hanl,
ready in your blindness to rush into the harbours that neigh-
bour us, the length of a way where no way is severs you from
its length of territory. First must the oar be suppled in
Trinacrian waters, and your ships must traverse the expanse
of the Ausonian brine, and the spectral lake, and the isle of
^^a:'an Circe, ere you can find a safe spot to build a peaceful
cit^^ I Avill tell you the tokens, be it yours to keep them
lodged in your mind. When on an anxious day, by the side
of a sequestered river, you shall find an enormous swine lying
under the oaks on the bank Avith a litter of thirty head just
born, white herself .through all her lazy length, her children
round her breasts as white as she — that shall be the site of
your city — that your assured rest from toil and trouble. Nor
need you shudder beforehand at the prospect of gnawing your
tables — the fates will find you a path, and a prayer will bring
you Apollo. But as for these lands, and this, line of the
Italian coast, which lies close at hand, and is washed by the
spray of our waters, this you must fly : the cities, one and all,
are peopled by enemies from Greece. Here the Narycian
Locrians have built them cities, and the Sallentine fields have
been occupied with an army by Lyctian Idomeneus : here is
the Meliboean chief Philoctetes' tiny town Patelia, Avith a
strong wall to prop it. Further, Avhen your fleet stands
moored on the other side the Avater, and you build altars and
pay vows on the coast, sliroud your head with the covering of
a purple robe, le?t, Avhile the hallowed fires are blazing, and,
the worship of the gods is yet unfinished, some enemy's eye
should meet yours, and make the omens void. Ee this ritual
custom maintained by your comrades as by yourself : let the
piety of generations to come abide in this observance. But when
leaving Italy you are carried by the wind near the Sicilian
coast, and Pelorus' narrow bars dimly open, make for the left

176 THE A^KEID.

shore, for the left water, long as the circuit round may be; avoid
the riglit, its land and its seas. This whole region by the force-
ful throes of a mighty convulsion — such power of change is
there in long centuries of olden time — was rent in twain, so
runs the story, the two countries before having been one and
unbroken ; at last the sea poured in violently between, and
with its Avaters cut off the Hesperian from the Sicilian_£ido,
washing between fields and cities, their seaboards now pUfcd,
with the waves of its narrow channel There the right-hand
coast is held by Scylla, the left by Charybdis, ever hungering,
who, at the bottom of the whirling abyss, thrice a day draws
the huge waves down her precipitous throat, and in turn up-
lieaves them to the sky, and lashes the stars with their spray.
But Scylla is confined in the deep recesses of a cave, Avhence
she thrusts out her mouths, and drags vessels on to her rocks.
At top, a human face, a maiden with beauteous bosom ;
at bottom an enormous sea-monster — dolphins' tails attached
to a belly all of wolves' heads. Better far wearily to
round the goal of Trinacrian Pachynus and fetch about
a tedious compass, than once to have looked on the monster
Scylla in her enormous cave, and the rocks that echo
with her sea-coloured dogs. Moreover, if there be any fore-
sight in Helenus, if you give any credence to his prophetic
tongue, if his mind be a fountain of Apollo's truth, one thing
there is, goddess-bom, one thing outweighing all beside which
I will foreshow you, reiterating the Avarning again and again
— be Juno, great Juno, the first Avhose deity you worship — to
Juno chant your willing prayers : subdue that mighty
empress by suppliant offerings : thus at last victorious you
will leave Trinacria behind, and be sped to the borders
of Italy. When you are there at length, and have coine
to the city of Cumse, and the haunted lake, and the Avoods
that rustle over Avernus, you Avill have sight of the frenzied

BOOK III. 412-473. 177

prophetess, wlio, in the cavern under the rock, chants her
fateful strain, and commits characters and words to the
leaves of trees. All the strains that the maid has written on
these leaves she arranges in order, shuts them up in her cave,
and leaves them there. They remain as she has left them,
their disposition unchanged. But, strange to say, when tlie
hinge is turned, and a breath of air moves the leaves, and
tli^^)ened door throws their light ranks into confusion,
henceforth she never troubles herself for a moment to catch
them as they fly about the cavern, to restore them to their
places, or to fit each strain to each. The inquirers retire
with their doubts unsolved, and a hatred of the sibyl's seat.
Arrived here, let no cost of time or delay weigh with you
so much — though your comrades should chide, and the
voyage loudly call your sails to sea, and a sheet-full of fair
wind be there at your choice — but that you visit the pro-
phetess, and beg and pray her herself to chant the oracle,
loosing speech and tongue with a ready will. She shall tell
you of the nations of Italy, and the wars of the future, and
the way to shun or stand the shock of every peril, and shall
vouchsafe to your prayer the boon of a prosperous voyage.
Such are the counsels which it is given you to receive from
my lips. Go on your way, and by your own actions lift to
heaven the greatness of Troy."

'Soon as the seer had thus uttered tliese words of kind-
ness, he next orders massy gifts of gold and carved ivory to
be carried on shipboard, and stores in the keels, a weight of
silver and caldrons of Dodona, a cuirass of chain-mail, three-
threaded in gold, and a splendid helmet with cone and flowing
crest, the armour of Xeoptolemus. My father, too, has pre-
sents of his own. Horses, too, he gives, and guides too ; makes
up the complement of oars, and arms the crews. Meanwhile
Anchise^ was giving the word to rig the fleet, not to wear out

M

178 ■ THE mNEID. "

the patience of a fair wind, llim the interpreter of Phoebus
addresses with much pomp of courtesy : " Anchises, graced witli
the proud privilege of Venus's wedded love, the special care of
tlie gods, whom they twice interposed to save from the fall of
Pergamus, lo ! tliore lies Ausonia's land ; for this make all sail.
Yet what have I said 1 This coast you must needs sail past ;
far away yonder lies that part of Ausonia which Apollo
reveals to you. Go on your way," cries he, " blesscLl^l a
son so duteous ! Why proceed further, and make the rising
gales wait while I talk 1 " As freely, too, Andromache, sad-
dened with the grief of parting, presents Ascanius with robes
pictured with gold embroidery, and a Phrygian scarf. She
tires not in her bounty, but loads him with gifts of needle-
work, and bespeaks him thus : " Take, too, these, dear boy,
to be a memorial of what my hands can do— a token for
long years of the affection of Andromache, Hector's wife.
Yes, take the last presents your kin can bestow, 0 sole sur-
viving image of my own Astyanax ! Those eyes are his eyes,
those hands his hands, that face his face, and he would
now be growing to manhood by your side, in bloom like
yours ! " Tears started forth, as I addressed my parting words
Fto the royal pair : ' Live long and happily, as those should
for whom the book of Fortune is closed. We, alas ! are still
called to turn page after page. You have won your rest :
you have no expanse of sea to plough, no Ausonian fields to
chase, still retiring as you advance. Your eyes look upon a
copy of the old Xanthus, upon a Troy which your own hands
have made — made, I would hope and pray, with happier
auspices, and with less peril of a visit from Greece. If the
day ever arrive when I shall enter Tiber and the fields that
neighbour Tiber, and look on the walls which Fate has made
over to my people, then we will have our two kindred cities,
our two fraternal nations — the one in Epirus, the other in

BOOK III. 473-53;. 179

Ilesperia, with a common founder, DarJanus, and a common
liistory — animated by one heart, till they come to be one Troy.
lEe this the destined care of our posterity ! "

' We push on over the sea under Ceraunia's neighbouring
range, whence there is a way to Italy, the shortest course
tlirough the water. Meantime the sun drops, and the moun-
tains arc veiled in shadow. "We stretch ourselves gladly on
the lap of earth by the water's side, having cast lots for the
oars, and take our ease dispersedly along the dry beach. Sleep's
dew sprinkles our wearied limbs. Not yet was night's car
entering the middle of its circle, drawn by the unflagging liours,
when Palinurus, with no thought of sloth, springs from his
bed, explores every wind, and catches witli his ears the voices
of the air. All the stars he notes, as tliey swim through the
silent sky, looking round oil Arcturus, and the showery Ilyades,
and the twin Bears, and Orion in his panoply of gold. Soon
as he sees them all set in a lieaven of calm, he gives a clear
signal from the stern. We break up our quarters, essay our
flight, and spread the wings of ovtr sails. And now the stars
were fled, and Aurora was just reddening in the sky, when in
the distance we see the dim hills and low plains of Italy.
" Italy ! " Achates was the first to cry. Italy our crews wel-
come with a shout of rapture. Then my father, Anchises,
Avreathed a mighty bowl with a garland, and filled it with wine,
and called on the gods, standing upon the tall stern : " Ye
powers that rule sea and land and weather, w^aft us a fair wind
and a smooth passage, and breathe auspiciously ! " The breeze
we wished for freshens ; the harbour opens as we near it, and the
temple of Minerva is seen crowning the height. Tlie crews
furl the sails, and turn their prows coastward. The harbour
is curved into an arch by the easterly waves ; a barrier of
cliffs on each side foams again with the briny spray ; between
them the haven lies concealed ; the towery rocks let down

I So THE ^NEID.

their arms like two walls, and the temple retires from the shore.
Here on the grass I saw four horses, the first token of heaven's
will, browsing the meadow at large, of snowy whiteness. And
Aiichiaes, my father, breaks forth : "War is on thy front, land of
the stranger; for war thy horses are prepared; war is threatened
by the cattle we see. Still, these beasts no less are trained one
day to stoop to the car, and carry harness and curb in harmony
with the yoke; yes," cries he, "there is hope of peace, too."
With that we make our prayers to the sacred majesty of Pallas,
queen of clanging arms, the first to welcome us in the hour of
our joy ; and, according to Helenus' order, that order which he
gave so earnestly, we duly solemnise to Juno of Argos the pre-
scribed honours. Then, without dallying, soon as our vows
were paid in course, we turn landward the horns of our covered
sailyards, and leave the homes of the sons of Greece, and the
fields we could not trust. Next we sight the bay of Taren-
tunij the city, if legend say true, of Hercules ; right against
us rises the goddess of Lacinium, and the towers of Caulon,
and Scylaceum, wrecker of ships. Then, in the distance,
from the surge is seen Trinacrian ^tna ; and the heavy
groaning of the sea and the beating of the rocks is heard from
afar, and broken voices on the beach, and the depths leap up
to sight, and the sands are in a turmoil with the surge. Then,
my father, A^<^liises : " No doubt this is that Charybdis ;
these the clifi"s, these the frightful rocks of Helenus' song.
Snatch us from them, comrades ; rise on your oars as one
man." They do no less than bidden; first of all Palinurus
turned the plashing prow to the waters on the left ; for the
left makes the whole fleet, oars, winds, and all. Up we go to
heaven on the arched back of the wave ; down again, as the
water gives way under us, we sink to the place of death
below. Thrice the rocks shouted in our ears deep in their
stony hollows; twice we saw the foam dashed up, and the

BOOK III. 535-597- iSi

stars all dripping. Meanwhile, tired and spent, we lose wind
and sunlight at once, and, in our ignorance of the way, float
to llie^lajii^^^fthe_Cxclops,

' There is a haven, slieltered from the approach of the winds,
and spacious, were that all ; but iEtna is near, thundering
Avith appalling crashes ; at one time it hurls to the sky a
Tjlack cloud, a smoky whirlwind of soot and glowing ashes,
and upheaves balls of fire, and licks the stars , at another it
raises rocks, torn from the mountain's bowels, and whirls heaps
of molten stones into the air with a groan, and boils up from
its very foundations. Tlie legend is, that tlie body of
Enceladus, blasted l)y lightning, is kept down by this mighty
Aveight, and that the giant bulk of TEtna, piled on him,
breathes fortli penal fire through passages which that fire has
burst ; and ever, as he shifts his side from weariness, all
Trinacria quakes and groans, and draws up a curtain of smoke
over the sky. That night, in the shelter of tlie woods, we
endure the visitation of monstrous portents, yet see not wliat
cause produces the sound. For there was no starlight, no sky,
bright Avith a heaven of constellations, but the firmament was
dim and murky, and dead night Avas keeping tlie moon in a
prison of storm-clouds.

' And now the next day Avas breaking in early daAvn, and
Aurora had draAvn off the dcAvy shadow from the sky, Avhen
suddenly from the AA'Oods comes forth the strange figure of a
man unknoAvn, in piteous trim — a picture completed by
Famine's master-stroke, and stretches his hands in sup-
pjlication to the shore. We look back : tliere Avas filth
to make us shudder, a length of beard, a covering fastened
Avith thorns ; yet the rest betokened a Greek, Avho had
once been sent to Troy in the army of his' nation. As for
him, Avhen he saAV from afar the dress of Dardan land and
the arms of Troy, for a moment he faltered, scared by the

i82 THE mNEID.

siglit, and checked his steps ; soon he ran headlong to the
shore, crying and praying: "By the stars I adjure you, by
the powers above, by this blessed light of heaven we breathe,
take me with you, Teucvians ; carry me off to any land you
will ; this will be enough. I know I am one of the Danaan
crews ; I own that I carried war into your Trojan homes ;
for which, if the guilt of my crime is so black, fling me piece-
meal to the waves, drown me deep in the great sea. If I am
to die, there will be pleasure in dying by the hands of men."
His speech was over, and he was clinging about us, clasping
our knees, and writhing round them. We encourage him to
tell us who he is, of what race sprung, to reveal what fortune
has since made him its sport. My father, Anchises, after no
long pause, himself gives his hand to the youth, and reassures
him by the powerful pledge. He at length lays aside his
fear, and speaks as follows : —

' " I come from Ithaca, a comrade of the ill-starred Ulysses,
my name A^hcmenides. I went to Troy, leaving my father,
Adamastus, who was poor. Would that his lot had remained
mine ! Here, in their hurry to leave the door of the
siaughterhouse, my comrades forgot me, and so left me
behind in the Cyclops' enormous den. It is a house of gore
and bloody feasting, deep, and dark, and huge ; its master
towers aloft, and strikes the stars on high (ye gods, remove
from the earth a plague like this !), whom no eye rests on
with pleasure, no tongue dare accost. The flesh of wretched
men and their black blood are the food he feeds on. These
eyes saw, when two bodies from our company, caught by his
huge hand, as he threw back his head in the midst of the
den, were being brained against the rock, and the floor was
plashed and swimming with blood — they saw, when he was
crunching their limbs, dripping with black gore, and the
warm joints were quivering under his teeth. He did it, but

BOOK III. 598-653. 183

not unpunished. Ulysses was not the man to brook a deed
like this ; the brain of Ithaca was not wanting to itself when
the need was so great. For soon as, gorged with his food
and buried in wine, he bent and dropped his neck, and lay
all along the den in unmeasured length, belching out gore in
his sleep, and gobbets mixed with bloody wine ; then we,
having made our prayer to the great gods and drawn our
places by lot, surround him on all sides as one man, and with
a sharp weapon bore out his eye, that vast eye, which used
to lie single and sunk under his grim brow,^ and thus at last
take triumphant vengeance for our comrades' shades. But
fly, unhappy men, fly, and tear your cable from the shore.
For hideous and huge as is Polyphemus, folding in his den
his woolly flocks and pressing their udders, as hideous and
huge are a hundred others that dwell everywhere along this
coast, monster Cyclops, and stalk over the tall mountains.
It is now the third moon, whose horns are filling out with
light, that I am dragging along my life in the woods, among
the lonely lairs where wild beasts dwell, and looking forth
on the huge Cyclops as they stalk from rock to rock, and
trembling at their tread and at the sound of their voices.
My wretched fare, berries and stony cornels, is supplied by
the boughs, and herbage uprooted yields me food. As I
turned my eyes all about, this fleet of yours at last I saw
advancing to the shore ; with this, prove it what might, I
cast in my lot ; it is enough to have escaped this race of
monsters. Sooner do you destroy this life by any death you
please. "

' Scarce had he ended, when on the mountain-top we see

the giant himself, moving along with his enormous bulk

among his cattle, and making for the well-knoA\Ti shore — a

monster dreadful, hideous, huge, with his eye extinguished.

^ Another line omitted in the translation. — [Ed.]

1 8; THE ^NEID.

A pine, lopped by his own hand, guides liim and steadies liis
footsteps. His woolly sheep accompany him — there is his
sole pleasure, the solace of his suffering. After he had
touched the waves of the deep and come to the sea, he
washes with its water the gore that trickles from his scooped-
out eye, gnashing his teeth with a groan ; and he steps
through the sea, now at main height, while the wave has not
yet wetted his tall sides. AVe, in alarm, hasten our flight from
the place, taking on board the suppliant, who had tlius made
good his claim, and silently cut the cable ; then throw our-
selves forward, and with emidous oars sweep along the sea. He
perceived it, and turned his steps towards the noise he heard.
But when he finds he has no means of grasping at ns with his
hand, no power of keeping pace with the Ionian waves in pur-
suit, he raises a gigantic roar, at which the sea and all its waters
trembled inwardly, and the land of Italy shuddered to its core,
and ^tna bellowed through her winding caverns. But the
tribe of the Cyclops, startled from wood and lofty mountain,
rush to the haven and fill the shore. There we see them stand-
ing, each with the empty menace of his grim eye, the brethren
of ^tna, lifting their tall heads to heaven, a dire assemblage —
like as on some tall peak, skiey oaks or cone-bearing cypresses
stand together, a lofty forest of Jupiter, or a grove of Diana.
Headlong our crews are driven by keen terror to fling out the
ropes anywhither, and stretch their sails to the winds that
would catch them. On the other hand, Helenus' warning bids
them not to hold on their way between Scylla and Charybdis,
a passage on either side removed but a hair's breadth from
death ; so our purpose stands to spread our sails backward.
"When lo ! the north wind is upon us, sped from Pelorus'
narrow strait. On I fly, past Pantagia's mouth of living rock.
and the bay of Megara, and low-lying Thapsus, Such were
the coasts named to us by Achemenides, as he retraced his

BOOK HI. 659-718. 185

former wanderings — Achemenides, comrade of the ill-starred
Ulysses.

'Stretched before the Sicanian bay lies an island, over
against Plemyrium the billowy — former ages named it Ortygia.
Hither, the legend is, Alpheus, the river of Elis, made himself
a secret passage under the sea ; and he now, through thy
mouth, Arethusa, blends with the waters of Sicily, Obedient
to command, we worship the mighty gods of the place ; and
from thence I pass the over-rich soil of Helorus the marshy.
Hence we skirt the tall crags and jutting rocks of Pachynus,
and Camarina is seen in the distance, — Camarina, which the
oracle gave no man leave to disturb, and the plains of Gela, and
Gela itself, mighty city, called from the stream that laves it.
Next Acragas the craggy displays from afar its lofty walls, one
day the breeder of generous steeds. Thee, too, I leave, by
favour of the winds, palmy Selinus, and pick my way through
the sunk rocks that make Lilybaeum's waters perilous. Hence
Drepanum receives me, with its haven and its joyless coast.
Here, after so many storms on the sea had done their worst,
woe is me ! I lose him that had made every care and danger
light, my father, Anchises. Here, best of sires, you leave
your son, lone and weary, you, who had been snatched from
those fearful dangers, alas ! in vain. Helenus, the seer, among
the thousand horrors he foretold, Avarned me not of this agony ;
no, nor dread Celaeno. This was my last suffering, this tho
goal of my long journeyings. It was on parting hence that
Heaven drove me on your coast.'

Thus father -^neas, alone, amid the hush of all around, was
recounting Heaven's destined dealings, and telling of his
voyages; and now, at length, he was silent, made an end,
and took his rest.

LC6 )

BOOK IV.

But the queen, pierced long since by love's cruel shaft, is feed-
ing the ■wound with her life-blood, and wasting under a hidden
fire. Many times the hero's own worth comes back to her
mind, many times the glory of his race ; his every look remains
imprinted on her breast, and his every word, nor will trouble
let soothing sleep have access to her frame.

The dawn-goddess of the morroAV Avas surveying the earth
with Phoebus' torch in her hand, and had already withdrawn
the dewy shadow from the sky, when she, sick of soul, thus
bespoke the sister whose heart Avas one with hers : — * Anna,
my sister, what dreams are these that confound and appal me !
Who is this ncAV guest that has entered our door ! "What
a face and carriage ! Wliat strength of breast and shoulders !
I do believe — it is no mere fancy — that he has the blood of
gods in his veins. An ignoble soul is known by the coward's
brand. Ah ! by what fates he has been tossed ! Wliat wars
he was recounting, every pang of them borne by himself !
Were it not the fixed, immovable purpose of my mind never
to consent to join myself with any in wedlock's bands, since
my first love played me false and made me the dupe of
death — had I not been weary of bridal bed and nuptial torch,
perchance I might have stooped to this one reproach. Anna
— for I will own tlie truth — since the fate of Sychseus, my
poor husband — since the sprinkling of the gods of my home
with the blood my brother shed, he and he only has touched

BOOK IV. 1-51. 187

my heart and shaken my resolution till it totters. I recog-
nise the traces of the old flame. But first I would pray that
earth may yawn for me from her foundations, or the all-
powerful sire hurl me thunder-stricken to the shades, to the
wan shades of Erebus and abysmal night, ere I violate thee,
my woman's honour, or unknit the bonds thou tiest. He
who first wedded me, he has carried off my heart — let him
keep it all his o\vn, and retain it in his grave.' Thus having
said, she deluged her bosom with a burst of tears.

Anna replies : — * Sweet love, dearer than the light to your
sister's eye, are you to pine and grieve in loneliness through
life's long spring, nor know aught of a mother's joy in her
children, nor of the prizes Venus gives ? Think you that
dead ashes and ghosts low in the grave take this to heart 1
Grant that no husbands have touched your bleeding heart in
times gone by, none now in Libya, none before in Tyre ;
yes, larbas has been slighted, and the other chieftains whom
Afric, rich in triumphs, rears as its own — will you fight
against a welcome, no less than an unwelcome passion ? Nor
does it cross your mind in whose territories you are settled?
On one side the cities of the Gaetulians, a race invincible in
war, and the Numidians environ you, unbridled as their steeds,
and the inhospitable Syrtis ; on another, a region unpeopled
by drought, and the widespread barbarism of the nation of
Barce. What need to talk of the war-cloud threatening from
Tyre, and the menaces of our brother 1 It is under Heaven's
auspices, I deem, and by Juno's blessing, that the vessels of
Ilion have made this voyage hither. What a city, my sister,
Avill ours become before your eyes ! what an empire will grow
out of a marriage like this ! With the arms of the Teucrians
at its back, to what a height will the glory of Carthage soar !
Only be it yours to implore the favour of Heaven, and having
won its acceptance, give free course to hospitality and weave

i88 THE .F.N HID.

a chain of pleas for delay, wliile the tempest is raging its full
on the sea, and Orion, the star of rain, while his ships are
still battered, and the rigour of the sky still unyielding.' By
these words she added fresh fuel to the fire of love, gave con-
fidence to her wavering mind, and loosed the ties of woman's
honour.

First they approach the temples and inquire for pardon
from altar to altar ; duly they slaughter chosen sheep to Ceres
the lawgiver, to Phoebus, and to father Lyseus — above all to
Juno, who makes marriage bonds her care. Dido herself, in
all her beauty, takes a goblet in her hand, and pours it out
full between the horns of a heifer of gleaming white, or moves
majestic in the presence of the gods towards the richly-laden
altars, and solemnises the day with offerings, and gazing
greedily on the victims' opened breasts, consults the entrails
yet quivering with life. Alas ! how blind are the eyes of
seers ! What can vows, what can temples do for the madness
of love 1 All the while a flame is preying on the very marrow
of her bones, and deep in her breast a wound keeps noiselessly
alive. She is on fire, the ill-fated Dido, and in her madness
ranges the whole city through, Ijke a doe from an arrow-shot,
whom, unguarded in the thick of the Cretan woods, a
shepherd, chasing her with his darts, has pierced from a
distance, and left the flying steel in the wound, unknowing
of his prize ; she at full speed scours the forests and lawns
of Dicte ; the deadly reed still sticks in her side. Xow she
leads 4^neas with her through the heart of the town, and
displays the wealth of Sidon, and the city built to dwell in.
She begins to speak, and stops midway in the utterance. Kow,
as the day fades, she seeks again the banquet of yesterday,
and once more in frenzy asks to hear of the agonies of Troy,
and hangs once more on his lips as he tells the tale. After-
wards, when the guests are gone, and the dim moon in turn

BOOK IV. 51-110. i8g

is hiding laer light, and the setting stars invite to slumber,
alone she mourns in the empty hall, and presses the couch
he has just left ; him far away she sees and hears, herself
far away ; or holds Ascanius long in her lap, spellbound by
his father's image, to cheat, if she can, her ungovernable
passion. The towers that were rising rise no longer; the
youth ceases to practise arms, or to make ready havens and
bulwarks for safety in war ; the works are broken and sus-
pended, the giant frowning of the walls, and the engine level
with the sky.

Soon as Jove's loved wife saw that she was so mastered by
the plague, and that good name could not stand in the face
of passion, she, the daughter of Saturn, bespeaks Venus thus :
— ' Brilliant truly is the praise, ample the spoils you are
carrying off, you and your boy — great and memorable the
fame, if the plots of two gods have really conquered one
woman. No ; I am not so blind either to your fears of my
city, to your suspicions of the open doors of my stately
Carthage. But when is this to end ? or what calls now for
such terrible contention ? Suppose for a change we establish
perpetual peace and a firm marriage bond. You have gained
what your whole heart went to seek. Dido is ablaze with
love, and the madness is coursing through her frame. Jointly
then let us rule this nation, each with fuU sovereignty ; let
her stoop to be the slave of a Phr^^gian husband, and make
over her Tyrians in place of dowry to your control'

To her — for she saw that she had spoken with a feigned
intent, meaning to divert the Italian empire to the coast of
Libya — Yenus thus replied : — ' AMio would be so mad as
to spurn offers like these, and prefer your enmity to
your friendship, were it but certain that the issue you
name would bring good fortune in its train? But I am
groping blindly after destiny — whether it be Jupiter's will

I go THE MNEID.

tliat the Tyrians and the voyagers from Troy should liave one
city — whether he would liave the two nations blended and a
league made between them. You are his wife ; it is your
place to approach him by entreaty. Go on, I will follow.'
Imperial Juno rejoined thus : — 'That task shall rest with me.
Xow, in what way our present purpose can be contrived, lend
me your attention, and I will explain iu brief. ^'Eneas and
Dido, poor sufferer ! are proposing to go hunting in tlie forest,
when first to-morrow's sun displays his rising, and with his
beams uncurtains the globe. On them I will pour from above
a black storm of mingled rain and hail, just when the horse-
men are all astir, and spreading their toils before the wood-
walks, and the whole heaven shall be convulsed with thunder.
The train shall fly here and there, and be lost in the thick
darkness. Dido and the Trojan chief shall find themselves in
the same cave. I will be there, and, if I may count on your
sanction, will unite her to him in lasting wedlock, and conse-
crate her his for life. Thus shall Hymen give us his presence.'
The Queen of Cythcra makes no demur, but nods assent,
smiling at the trick she has found out.

Meanwhile xiurora has risen, and left the ocean. Rising
with the day-star, the chivalry of Carthage streams through
the gates, their woven toils, and nets, and hunting-spears
tipped with broad iron, and Massylian horsemen hurry along,
and a force of keen-scented hounds. There are the Punic
princes, waiting for the queen, who still lingers in her
chamber ; there stands her palfrey, conspicuous in purple and
gold, fiercely champing the foaming bit. At length she comes
forth, with a mighty train attending, a Tyrian scarf round
her, itself surrounded by an embroidered border ; her quiver
of gold, her hair knotted up Avith gold, her purple robe
fastened with a golden clasp. The Phrygian train, too, are
in motion, and lulus, all e-\.uitation, yEueas himself, comely

BOOK IV. 111-171. 191

beyond all tlie rest, adds his presence to theirs, and joins the
procession ,'''like Apollo, when he leaves his Lycian winter-
seat and the stream of Xanthus, and visits Delos, his mother's
isle, and renews the dance ; while with mingled voices round
the altar shout Cretans and Dryopians, and tattooed Agathyr-
sians. The god in majesty walks on the heights of Cynthus,
training his luxuriant hair with the soft pressure of a wreath
of leaves, and twining it with gold ; his arrows rattle on his
shoulders. Not with less ease than he moved ^neas ^ such
the heauty that sparkles in that peerless countenance. "When
they reach the high mountains and the pathless coverts, see !
the wild goats, dropping from the tops of the crags, have
run down the slopes ; in another quarter the deer are
scouring the open plains, massing their herds as they
fly in a whirlwind of dust, and leaving the mountains.
But young Ascanius is in the heart of the glens, exulting
in his fiery courser. Xow he passes one, now another of
his comrades at full speed, and prays that in the midst of
such spiritless game he may be blest with the sight of a
foaming boar, or that a tawny lion may come down the hill.
Meantime the sky begins to be convulsed with a mighty
turmoil ; a storm-cloud follows of mingled rain and hail. The
Tyrian train, all in confusion, and the chivalry of Troy, and
the hope of Dardania, Venus' grandson, have sought shelter
in their terror up and down the country, some here, some
there. The streams run in torrents down the hills. Dido
and the Trojan chief find themselves ,in the same cave.
Earth, the mother of all, and Juno give the sign.

Lightnings blaze, and heaven flashes in sympathy with the
bridal ; and from mountain-tops the nymphs give the nuptial
shout. That day was the birthday of death, the birthday of
woe. Henceforth she has no thought for the common eye or
the common tongue ; it is not a stolen passion that Dido haa

192 THE MNEID.

now in her mind— no, she calls it marriage; that name is
the screen of her sin.

Instantly Fame takes her journey through Libya's great
cities — Fame, a monster surpassed in speed by none ; her
nimbleness lends her life, and she gains strength as she
goes. At first fear keeps her low ; soon she rears herself
skyward, and treads on the ground, while her head is hidden
among the clouds. Earth, her parent, provoked to anger
against the gods, brought her forth, they say, the youngest of
the family of Coeus and Enceladus — swift of foot and untiring
of wing, a portent terrible and vast — who, for every feather
on her body has an ever-wakeful eye beneath, marvellous to
tell, for every eye a loud tongue and mouth, and a pricked-up
ear. At night she flies midway between heaven and earth,
hissing through the darkness, nor ever yields her eyes to the
sweets of sleep. In the daylight she sits sentinel on a high
house-top, or on a lofty turret, and makes great cities afraid ;
as apt to cling to falsehood and wrong as to proclaim the truth.
So then she was filling the public ear with a thousand tales
— things done and things never done alike the burden of her
song — how that -^neas, a prince of Trojan blood, had arrived
at Carthage, a hero whom lovely Dido deigned to make her
husband, and now in luxurious ease they were wearing away
the length of winter together, forgetful of the crowns they
wore or hoped to wear, and enthralled by unworthy passion.
Such are the tales the fiendlike goddess spreads from tongue
to tongue. Then, in due course, she turns her steps to King
larbas, and inflames him with her rumours, and piles his
indignation high. He, the son of Amnion, from the ravished
embrace of a Garamantian nymph, built within his broad
realms a hundred temples to Jove, and in each temple an
altar ; there he had consecrated an ever- wakeful fire, the god's
unsleeping sentry, a floor thick with victims' blood, and doors

BOOK IV. 171-231. 193

vreatlieJ uilli pailicoloured garlands. And lie, frenzied in
soul, and stung by the bitter tidings, is said, as he stood
before the altars, with the majesty of Heaven all around him,
to have prayed long and earnestly to Jove with upturned
hands : — 'Jove, the Almighty, to whom in this my reign the
Moorish race, feasting on embroidered couches, pour out the
offering of the vintage, seest thou this? or is our dread of
thee. Father, when thou hurlest thy lightnings, an idle panic 1
are those aimless fires in the clouds that appal us ? have their
confused rumblings no meaning ? See here : a woman, who,
wandering in our territories, bought leave to build a petty
town-, to whom we made over a strip of land for tillage, with
its rights of lordship, she has rejected an alliance with us,
and received ^neas into her kingdom, to be its lord and hers.
And now that second Paris, with his emasculate following,
a Mseonian cap supporting his chin and his cssenced hair,
is enjoying his prize, while we, forsooth, are making offerings
to temples of thine, and keeping alive an idle rumour.'

Thus as he prayed, his hands grasping the altar, the
almighty one heard him, and turned his eyes to the queenly
city and the guilty pair, lost to their better fame. Then
thus he bespeaks Mercury, and gives him a charge like this :
— ' Go, haste, my son, summon the Zephyrs, and float on thy
wings; address the Dardan chief, who is now dallying in
Tyrian Carthage, and giving no thought to the city Avhich
Destiny makes his own ; carry him my commands through
the flying air. It was not a man like that whom his beaii-
teous mother promised us in him, and on the strength of her
w^ord twice rescued him from the sword of Greece. No, he
was to be one who should govern Italy — Italy, with its brood
of unborn empires, and the war-cry bursting from its heart — -
who should carry down a line sprung from the grand fountain-
liead of Teucer's blood, and should force the whole Avorld to

N

T94 THE MNEID.

Low to tliG laws lie makes. If he is fired by no spark of
ambition for greatness like this, and Avill not rear a toilsome
fabric for his own praise, is it a father's heart that grudges
Ascanius the hills of Eome ? What is he building ? What
does he look to in lingering on among a nation of enemies,
with no thought for the great Ausonian family, or for the
fields of Lavinium ? Away with him to sea ! This is our
sentence ; thus far be our messenger.'

Jove had spoken, and Mercury was preparing to execute
the great sire's command : first he binds to his feet his
sandals, all of gold, which carry him, uplifted by their pinions,
over sea no less than land, with the swiftness of the wind that
wafts him. Then he takes his rod — the rod with which he is
wont to call up pale spectres from the place of death, to send
others on their melancholy way to Tartarus, to give sleep or
take it away, and to open the eyes when death is past. With
this in hand, he drives the winds before him, and makes a
path through the sea of clouds. And now in his flight he
espies the crest and the tall sides of Atlas the rugged, who with
his top supports the sky — Atlas, whose pine-crowned head,
ever wreathed with dark clouds, is buffeted by wind and rain.
A mantle of snow wraps his shoulders ; rivers tumble from his
hoary chin, and his grisly beard is stiff with ice. Here first
Cyllene's god poised himself on his wings and rested ; then
from his stand stooping his whole body, he sent himself head-
long to the sea, like a bird which haunting the coast and
the fishy rocks flies low, close to the water. Even so was
he flying between earth and heaven, between Libya's sandy
coast and the winds that swept it, leaving his mother's father
behind, himself Cyllene's progeny.

Soon as his winged feet alit among the huts of Carthage,
he sees ^ncas founding toAvers and making houses new. A
sword was at his side, starred witli yellow jasjiers, and a

BOCK IV. 331-293. 195

mantle droopod from liis shoulders, ablaze with Tyrian purple
— a costly gift which Dido had made, varying the web with
threads of gold. Instantly he assails him : — ' And are you at
a time like this laying the foundations of stately Carthago,
and building, like a fond husband, your wife's goodly city, for-
getting, alas ! your own kingdom and the cares that should bo
yours 1 It is no less than the ruler of the gods who sends mo
down to you from his briglit Olympus — he whose nod sways
heaven and earth ; it is he that bids me carry his commands
through the flying air. What are you building ? what do you
look to in squandering your leisure in Libyan land ? If you
are fired by no spark of ambition for the greatness in your view,
and will not rear a toilsome fabric for your own praise, think
of Ascanius rising into youth, think of lulus, your heir and
your hope, to whom you owe the crown of Italy and the realm
of Eome,' AVith these words Cyllene's god quitted mortal
sight ere he had well ceased to speak, and vanished away from
the eye into unsubstantial air.

The sight left iEneas dumb and aghast indeed ; his hair
stood shudderingly erect ; his speech clave to his throat. He
burns to take flight and leave the land of pleasure, as his ears
ring with the thunder of Heaven's imperious warning. What
— ah ! what is he to do ? with what address can he now dare to
approach the impassioned queen ? what first advances can he
employ 1 And thus he despatches his rapid thought hither and
thither, hurrying it east and weit, and sweeping every corner of
the field. So balancing, at last he thought this judgment the
best. He calls Mnestheus and Sergestus and brave Serestus ;
bids them quietly get ready the fleet, muster the crews on
the shore, with their arms in their hands, hiding the reason
for so sudden a change. Meantime he, while Dido, kindest
of friends, is in ignorance, deeming love's chain too strong to
be snapped, will feel his way, and find what are the happiest

196 THE ^NEID.

moments for speech, what the right hold to take of circum-
stance. At once all gladly obey his command, and are busy
on the tasks enjoined.

But the queen (who can cheat a lover's senses 1) scented
the plot, and caught the first sound of the coming stir, alive
to fear in the midst of safety. Fame, as before, the same
baleful fiend, whispered in her frenzied ear that the fleet was
being equipped and the voyage got read}-. She storms in
impotence of soul, and, all on fire, goes raving through the
city, like a Mtenad starting up at the rattle of the sacred
emblems, when the triennial orgies lash her with the cry of
Bacchus, and Cithceron's yell calls her into the night. At
length she thus bespeaks /Eneas, unaddressed by him : —

'To hide, yes, hide your enormous crime, perfidious Avretch,
did you hope that might be done — to steal away in silence
from my realm ? Has our love no power to keep you ? has
our troth, once plighted, none, nor she whom you doom to a
cruel death, your Dido ? I^a^', are you fitting out your fleet
with winter's sky overhead, and hastening to cross the deep
in the face of all the northern winds, hard-hearted as you are 1
AVhy, suppose you were not seeking a strange clime and
a home you know not — suppose old Troy were still standing
— would even Troy draw you to seek her across a billowy
sea ? Flying, and from me ! By the tears I shed, and by
your plighted hand, since my own act, alas ! has left mo
nought else to plead — by our union — by the nuptial rites
thus prefaced — if I have ever deserved well of you, or aught
of mine ever gave you pleasure — have pity on a falling house,
and strip off, I conjure you, if prayer be not too late, the
mind that clothes you. It is owing to you that the Libyan
tribes and the Xomad chiefs hate me, that my own Tyriaus
are estranged ; owing to you, yes, you, that my woman's
honour has been put out, and that which Avas my one passport

EOOK IV. 293-354. 197

to immortality, my former fame. To -wliom are you abandon-
ing a dying woman, ray guest ? — since the name of liusband
has dwindled to that. Why do I live any longer 1 — to give my
brother Pygmalion time to batter down my walls, or larbas
the Moor to carry me away captive ? Had I but borne any off-
spring of you before your flight, were there some tiny ^neas
to play in my hall, and remind me of you, though but in look,
I should not then feel utterly captive and forlorn.'

She ceased. He all the while, at Jove's command, Avas
keeping his eyes unmoved, and shutting up in his heart his
great love. At length he answers in brief : — ' Fair queen,
name all the claims to gratitude you can. I shall never gain-
say one, nor will the thought of Elissa ever be unwelcome
while memory lasts, while breath animates this frame. A
few Avords I will say, as the case admits. I never counted —
do not dream it — on stealthily concealing my fliglit. I never
came with a bridegroom's torch in my hand, nor was this the
alliance to which I agreed. For me, were the Fates to suffer
uie to live under a star of my own choosing, and to make witlx
care the terms I would, the city of Troy, first of all the dear
remains of what was mine, would claim my tendance. Priam's
tall roof-tree would still be standing, and my hand would have
built a restored Pergamus, to solace the vanquished. But noAv
to princely Italy Grynean Apollo, to Italy his Lycian oracles
bid me repair. There is my heart, there my fatherland. If
you are riveted here by the sight of your stately Carthage,
a daughter of Phoenicia by a Libyan town, why, I Avould ask,
should jealousy forbid Teucrians to settle in Ausonian land ?
AVe, like you, have the right of looking for a foreign realm.
There is my father Anchises, oft as night's dewy shades invest
the earth, oft as the fiery stars arise, warning me in dreams
and appalling me by his troubled presence. There is my son
Ascanius, and the wrongs heaped on his dear head every day

igS THE ALNEID.

that I rob him of the crown of Hesperia, and of the land that
fate makes his. Kow, too, the messenger of the gods, sent
down from Jove himself (I swear by both our lives) has brought
me orders through the flying air. "With my own eyes I saw
the god in clear daylight entering the walls, and took in his
words with the ears that hear jou. now. Cease then to harrow
up both our souls by your reproaches : my quest of Italy is not
of my own motion.'

Long ere he had done this speech she was glaring at him
askance, rolling her eyes this way and that, and scanning the
whole man with her silent glances, and thus she bursts forth
all ablaze: — 'N^o goddess was mother of yours, no Dardanus
the head of your line, perfidious wretch ! — no, your parent
M"as Caucasus, rugged and craggy, and Ilyrcanian tigresses put
tlieir breasts to your lips. For why should I suppress aught?
or for what worse evil hold myself in reserve ? Did he groan
when I wept? did he move those hard eyes? did he yield
and shed tears, or pity her that loved him ? What first ? what
last ? Now, neither Juno, queen of all, nor Jove, the almighty
Father, eyes us with impartial regard. !N"owhere is there aught
to trust — nowhere. A shipwrecked beggar, I welcomed him,
and madly gave him a share of my realm ; his lost fleet, his
crews, I brought back from death's door. Ah ! Fury sets me
on fire, and whirls me round ! Xow, prophet Apollo, now the
Lycian oracles. Now the messenger of the gods, sent down
by Jove himself, bears his grim bidding through the air ! Aye,
of course, that is the employment of the powers above, tho~e
the cares that break their repose ! I retain not your person,
nor refute your talk. Go, chase Italy Avith the winds at your
back ; look for realms with the whole sea between you. I
have hope that on the rocks midway, if the gods are as power-
ful as they are good, you will drain the cup of punishment,
with Dido's name ever on your lips. I will follow you wiUi

BOOK IV. 355-413- 199

»•
murky fires when I am far away ; and when cold death shall

have parted soul and body, my shade shall haunt you every-
where. Yes, wretch, you shall suffer. I shall hear it — the
news will reach me down among the dead.' So saying, she
snaps short her speech, and flies with loathing from the day-
light, and breaks and rushes from his sight, leaving him
hesitating, and fearing, and thinking of a thousand things to
say. Her maidens support her, and carry her sinking frame
into her marble chamber, and lay her on her bed.

But good ^neas, though yearning to solace and soothe her
agonised spirit, and by his words to check the onset of
sorrow, with many a groan, his whole soul upheaved by
the force of love, goes nevertheless about the commands of
Heaven, and repairs to his fleet. The Teucrians redouble
their efl"orts, and along the whole range of the shore drag
their tall ships down. The keels are careened and floated.
They carry oars with their leaves still on, and timber un-
fashioned as it stood in tlie Avoods, so strong their eager-
ness to fly. You may see them all in motion, streaming
from every part of the city. Even as ants when they are -/
sacking a huge heap of wheat, provident of winter days, and
laying up the plunder in their stores ; a black column is seen
moving through the plain, and they convey their booty along
the grass in a narrow path : some are putting their shoulders
to the big grains, and pushing them along ; others are rallying
the force and punishing the stragglers ; the whole track is in
a glow of work. AMiat were your feelings then, poor Dido,
at a sight like this ! How deep the groans you heaved, when
you looked out from your lofty tower on a beach all seething
and swarming, and saw the Avhole sea before you deafened
with that hubbub of voices ! Tyrant love ! what force dost
thou not put on human hearts 1 Again she has to condescend
to tears, again to use the weapons of entreaty, and bow her

200 THE ,^NEID.

spirit in suppliance under love's yoke, lest she should have
left aught untried, and be rushing on a needless death.

' Anna, you see there is hurrying all over the shore — they
are met from every side ; the can'p^as is already wooing the
gale, and the joyful sailors have wreathed the sterns. If I have
had the foresight to anticipate so heavy a blow, I shall have
the power to bear it too, my sister. Yet, Anna, in my misery,
perform me this one service. You, and you only, the
perfidious man was wont to make his friend — aye, even to
trust you with his secret thoughts. You, and you only,
know the subtle approaches to his heart, and the times of
essaying them. Go, then, my sister, and supplicate our
haughty foe. Tell him I was no party to the Danaan league
at Aulis to destroy the Trojan nation ; I sent no ships to
Pergamus ; I never disinterred his father Anchises, his dust
or his spirit. Why will he not let my words sink down into
his obdurate ears ? "Whither is he hurrying 1 Let him grant
this last boon to her who loves him so wildly ; let him wait
till the way is smoothed for his flight, and there are Avinds to
waft him. I am not asking him now to renew our old vows
which he has forsworn. I am not asking him to forego his
fair Latium, and resign his crown. I entreat but a few
vacant hours, a respite and breathing-space for my passion,
till my fortune shall have taught baffled love how to grieve.
This is my last request of you — Oh, pity your poor sister ! —
a request which when granted shall be returned with interest
in death.'

Such was her appeal — such the wailing whicli her afflicted
sister bears to him, and bears again ; but no wailing moves
him, no words find him a gentle listener. Fate bars the way,
i^ and Heaven closes the hero's relenting ears. Eyen_as an aged
oak, still hale and strong, which Alpine winds, blowing now
here, now there, strive emulously to uproot — a loud noise is

BOOK IV. 414-475. 20t

heard, and, as the stem rocks, heaps of leaves pile the ground ;
but the tree cleaves firmly to the cliff; high as its head
strikes into the air, so deep its root strikes down to the abyss —
Bven thus the hero is assailed an all sides by a storm of words :
Jiis mighty breast thrills through and through with agony ; but
his mind is unshaken, and tears are showered in vain.

Then at last, maddened by her destiny, poor Dido prays
for death : heaven's vault is a weariness to look on. To con-
firm her in pursuing her intent, and closing her eyes on the
sun, she saw, as she was laying her offerings on the incense-
steaming altars — horrible to tell — the sacred liquor turn
black, and the streams of wine curdle into loathly gore. This
appearance she told to none, not even to her sister. More-
over, there was in her palace a marble chapel to her former
husband, to which she used to pay singular honours, wreath-
ing it with snowy fillets and festal boughs ; from it she
thought she heard a voice, the accents of the dead man call-
ing her, when the darkness of night was shrouding the earth ;
and on the roof a lonely owl in funereal tones kept com-
]ilaining again and again, and drawing out wailingly its
protracted notes ; and a thousand predictions of seers of
other days come back on her, terrifying her with their awful
warnings. When she dreams, there is ^neas himself driving
her in furious chase : she seems always being left alone to
herself, always pacing companionless on a never-ending road,
and looking for her Tyrians in a realm without inhabitants —
'iks Pentheus, when in frenzy he sees troops of Furies, and
two suns, and a double Thebes rising round him ; or Aga-
memnon's Orestes rushing over the stage, as he flies from his
mother, who is armed Avith torches and deadly snakes, while
the avenging fiends sit couched on the threshold.

So when, spent with agony, she gave conception to the
demon, and resolved on death, she settled with herself time

202 THE MNEID.

and means, and thus bespoke her grieving sister, her fa:e
disguising her intent, and hope smiling on her brow : —
' Dearest, I have found a A\-ay — wish me joy, as a sister
should — to bring him back to me, or to loose me from the
love which binds me to him. Hard by the bound of ocean
and the setting sun lies the extreme Ethiopian clime, where
mighty Atlas turns round on his shoulders the pole, studdeil
with burning stars. From that clime, I have heard of a
priestess of the Massylian race, once guardian of the temple
of the Hesperides, who used to give the dragon his food, and
so preserve the sacred boughs on the tree, sprinkling for him
moist honey and drowsy poppy-seed. She, by her spells,
undertakes to release souls at her pleasure, while into others
she shoots cruel pangs ; she stops the water in the river-bed,
and turns back the stars in their courses, and calls ghosts
from realms of nidit. You will see the earth bellowinc:
under you, and the ashes coming down from the mountain-
top. By the gods I swear, dearest sister, by you and your
dear life, that unwillingly I gird on the weapons of magic.
Do you, in the privacy of the inner court, build a pile to the
open sky ; lay on it the arms which that godless man left
hanging in the chamber, and all his doffed apparel, and the
nuptial bed which was my undoing. To destroy every
memorial of the hateful wretch is my pleasure, and the
priestess' bidding.' This said, she is silent — paleness over-
spreads her face. Yet Anna does not dream that these strange
rites are a veil to hide her sister's death : she cannot grasp
frenzy like that ; she fears no darker day than that of their
mourning for Sychteus, and so she does her bidding.

Dut the queen, Avhen the pile had been built in tlie heart
of the palace to the open sky, a giant mass of pine-wood and
hewn oak, spans the place with garlands, and crowns it with
funeral boxighs. High above it on the couch she sets the

BOOK IV. 475-538. 203

doffed apparel, and the sword that had been left, and the
image of the false lover, knowing too well what was to come.
''Altars rise here and there ; the priestess, with hair dis-
hevelled, thunders out the roll of three hundred gods, Erebus
and Chaos, and Hecate with her triple form — the three faces
boine by maiden Dian. See ! she has sprinkled water,
brought, so she feigns, from Avernus' spring, and she is get-
ting green downy herbs, cropped by moonlight with brazen
shears, whose sap is the milk of deadly poison, and the love-
charm, torn from the brow of the new-born foal, ere the
mother could snatch it. Dido herself, with salted cake and
pure hands at the altars, one foot unshod, her vest ungirdled,
makes her dying appeal to the gods and to the stars who
share Fate's counsels, begging the powers, if any there be,
that watch, righteous and unforgotting, over ill yoked lovers,
to hear her prayer.

It was night, and overtoiled mortality throughout the earth
was enjoying peaceful slumber ; the woods were at rest, and
the raging waves — the hour when the stars are rolling midway
in their smooth courses, when all the land is hushed, cattle,
and gay-plumed birds, haunters far and wide of clear waters
and rough forest-ground, lapped in sleep with stilly night
overhead, their troubles assuaged, their hearts dead to care.
Not so the vexed spirit of Phoenicia's daughter ; she never
relaxes into slumber, or welcomes the night to eye or bosom ;
sorrow doubles peal on peal ; once more love swells, and
storms, and surges, with a mighty tempest of passion. Thus,
then, she plunges into speech, and whirls her thoughts about
thus in the depth of her soul: — '"What am I about? Am
1 to make fresh proof of my former suitors, with scorn before
me 1 Must I stoop to court Komad bridegrooms, whose offered
hand I have spurned so often 1 "Well, then, shall I follow the
fleet of Ilion, and be at the beck and call of Teucrian masters ?

204 THE ^NEID.

la jt that tliey think with pleasure on the succour once rendered
them 1 that gratitude for past kindness yet lives in their
memory 1 But even if I wished it, who will give me leave, or
admit the unwelcome guest to his haughty ships 1 Are you so
ignorant, poor wretch ? Do you not yet understand the perjury
of the race of Laomedon 1 What then ? Shall I fly alone, and
swell the triumpli of their crews 1 or shall I put to sea, with the
Tyrians and the whole force of my people at my back, dragging
those whom it was so hard to uproot from their Sidonian home
again into the deep, and bidding them spread sail to the winds ?
'No ! — die the death you have merited, and let the sword put
your sorrow to flight. You, sister, are the cause ; overmastered
by my tears, you heap this deadly fuel on my flame, and fling
me upon my enemy. AVhy could I not forswear wedlock,
and live an unblamed life in savage freedom, nor meddle with
troubles like these ? Why did I not keep the faith I vowed
to the ashes of Sycbseus ? ' Such were the reproaches that
broke from that bursting heart.

Meanwhile ^ncas, resolved on his journey, was slumbering
ill his vessel's tall stern, all being now in readiness. To him
a vision of the god, appearing again with the same countenance,
presented itself as he slept, and seemed to give this second
warning — the perfect picture of Mercury, his voice, his bloom-
ing hue, his yellow locks, and the youthful grace of his frame :
— ' Goddess-born, at a crisis like this can you slumber on 1
Do you not see the wall of danger which is fast rising round
you, infatuate that you are, nor hear the favouring whisper of
the western gale ? She is revolving in her bosom thoughts of
craft and crueltj'-, resolved on death, and surging with a
changeful tempest of passion. Will you not haste away while
liaste is in your power ? You will look on a sea convulsed
Avith ships, an array of fierce torch-fires, a coast glowing with
flame, if the dawn-goddess shall have found you loitering here.

BOOK IV. 53S-599. 20;

on land. Quick! — burst through dela3% A thing of moods
and chanu'es is woman ever.' He said, and was lost in the
darkness of night.

At once ^Eueas, scared by the sudden apparition, springs
up from sleep, and rouses his comrades. ' "Wake in a
moment, my friends, and seat you on the benches. Un-
furl the sails witli all speed. See ! here is a god sent
down from heaven on high, urging us again to hasten our
flight, and cut the twisted cables. Yes ! sacred power, we
follow thee, whoever thou art, and a second time with joy
obey thy behest. Be thou with us, and graciously aid us, and
let propitious stars be ascendant in the sky.' So saying, he
snatches from the scabbard his flashing sword, and with the
drawn blade cuts the hawsers. The spark flies fronr man to
man ; they scour, they scud, they have left the shore behind ;
you cannot see the water for ships. With strong strokes they
dash the foam, and sweep the blue.

And. now Aurora was beginning to sprinkle the eartb with
fresh light, rising from Tithonus' safi"ron couch. Soon as the
queen from her watch-tower saw the grey dawn brighten, and
the fleet moving on with even canvas, and coast and haven
forsaken, with never an oar left, thrice and again smiting her
beauteous breast with her hands, and rending her golden locks,
//'Great Jupiter!' cries she, 'shall he go? Shall a chance-
comer boast of having flouted our realm ? Will they not get
their arms at once, and give chase from all the town, and pull,
some of them, the ships from the docks ? Away ! bring fire ;
quick ! get darts, ply oars ! What am I saying ? Where am
I ? AVhat madness turns my brain 1 Wretched Dido I do
your sins sting you now 1 They should have done so then,
when you were giving your crown away. What truth ! what
fealty I — the man who, they say, carries about with him the
gods of his country, and took up on his shoulders bis old.

2o6 THE .^NEID.

■worn-out father ! Mi-'lit I not liave cau'^Iit and torn liim

O O

piecemeal, and scattered liim to the waves? — destroyed his
friends, aye, and his own Ascanius, and served up the boy
for his fatlier's meal ? But the chance of a battle would have
been doubtful. Let it have been. I was to die, and whom
had I to fear? I would have flung torches into his camp,
filled his decks with flame, consumed son and sire and the
whole line, and leapt myself upon the pile. Sun, whose torch
shows thee all that is done on earth, and thou, Juno, revealer
and witness of these stirrings of the heart, and Hecate, whose
name is yelled in civic crossways by night, avenging fiends,
and gods of dying Elissa, listen to this ! Let your power
stoop to ills that call for it, and hear what I now pray ! If
it must needs be that the accursed wretch gain the haven and
float to shore — if such the requirement of Jove's destin}-, such
the fixed goal — yet grant that, harassed by the sword and
battle of a warlike nation, a wanderer from his own confines,
torn from his lulus' arms, he may pray for succour, and see
his friends dying miserably round him ! ISTor when he has
yielded to the terms of an unjust peace, may he enjoy his
crown, or the life he loves ; but may he fall before his time,
and lie unburied in the midst of the plain ! This is my
prayer — these the last accents that flow from me with my
life-blood. And you, my Tyrians, let your hatred persecute
the race and people for all time to come. Be this the offering
you send down to my ashes : never be there love or league
between nation and nation. Arise from my bones, my
unknown avenger, destined with fire and sword to pursue the
Dardanian settlers, now or in after-days, whenever strength
shall be given ! Let coast be at war with coast, water with
Avave, army with army ; fight they, and their sons, and their
sons' sons !'

Thus she said, as she whirled her thought to this side and

BOOK IV. 599-662. 207

that, seeking at once to cut sliort the life she now ahhorrecL
Then briefly she spoke to Barce, Sychseus' nurse, for her own
was left in her old country, in the black ashes of the grave :
— ' Fetch me here, dear nurse, my sister Anna. Bid her
hasten to sprinkle herself with water from the stream, and
bring with her the cattle and the atoning offerings prescribed.
Let her come with these; and do you cover your brow with the
holy fillet. The sacrifice to Stygian Jove, which I have duly
commenced and made ready, I wish now to accomplish, and
with it the end of my sorrows, giving to the flame the pile
that pillows the Dardan head ! ' She said : the nurse began
to quicken her pace with an old wife's zeal.

But Dido, wildered and maddened by her enormous resolve,
rolling her bloodshot eye, her quivering cheeks stained with
fiery streaks, and pale with the shadow of death, bursts the
door of the inner palace, and frantically climbs the tall pile,
and unsheathes the Dardan sword, a gift procured for a far dif-
ferent end. Then, after surveying the Trojan garments and the
bed, too well known, and pausing awhile to weep and tliink, she
pressed her bosom to the couch, and uttered her last words :—

' Eelics, once darlings of mine, while Fate and Heaven gave
leave, receive this my soul, and release me from these my
sorrows. I have lived my life — the course assigned me by
Fortune is run, and now the august phantom of Dido shall
pass underground. I have built a splendid city. I have seen
my walls completed. In vengeance for a husbauvl, I have
punished a brother that hated me — blest, ah ! blest beyond
human bliss, if only Dardan ships had never touched coast of
ours ! ' She spoke — and kissing the couch : ' Is it to be death
without revenge 1 But be it death,' she cries — ' this, this is
the road by which I love to pass to the shades. Let the
heartless Dardanian's eyes drink in this flame from the deep,
and let him carry with him the presage of my death.'

2c8 THE ^NEID.

She spoke, and even while she was yet speaking, her atten-
dants see lier fallen on the sword, the blade spouting blood,
and her hands dabbled in it. Their shrieks rise to the lofty
roof ; Fame runs wild through the convulsed city. With
wailing and groaning, and screams of women, tlie palace rings ;
the sky resounds with mighty cries and beating of breasts —
even as if the foe were to burst the gates and topple down
Carthage or ancient Tyre, and the infuriate flame were leaping
from roof to roof among the dwellings of men and gods.

Her sister heard it. Breathless and frantic, with wild speed,
disfiguring her cheeks with her nails, her bosom with her fists,
she bursts through the press, and calls by name on the dying
queen :— "Was this your secret, sister 1 Were you plotting
to cheat me ? Was this what your pile was preparing for me,
your fires, and your altars 1 What should a lone heart grieve
for first 1 Did you disdain your sister's company in death 1
You should have called me to share your fate — the same keen
sword-pang, the same hour, should have been the end of both.
And did these hands build the pile, this voice call on the gods
of our house, that you might lie there, while I, hard-hearted
wretch, was away 1 Yes, sister, you have destroyed yourself
and me, the people and the elders of Sidon, and your own fair
city. Let in the water to the wounds ; let me cleanse them,
and if any remains of breath be still flickering, catch them in
my mouth ! ' As she thus spoke, she was at the top of the
lofty steps, and was embracing and fondling in her bosom her
dying sister, and stanching with her robe the black streams of
blood. Dido strives to raise her heavy eyes, and sinks down
again, the deep stab gurgles in her breast. Thrice, with an
efi"ort, she lifted and reared herself up on her elbow; thrice, she
fell back on the couch, and with helpless wandering eyes aloft
in the sky, sought for the light and groaned when she found it.

Then Juno almighty, in com passion for her lengthened agony

BOOK IV. 663-705 209

and lier trouble in dying, sent down Iris from Olympus to
part the struggling soul and its prison of flesli. For, as she
was dying, not in the course of fate, nor for any crime of
hers, but in mere misery, before her time, the victim of suddei.
frenzy, not yet had Proserpine carried off a lock of her yellow
hair, and thus doomed hor head to Styx and tlic place of
death. So then Iris glides down the sky with saffron wings
dew-besprent, trailing a thousand various colours in the face
of the sun, and alights above her head ' This I am bidden
to bear away as an offering to Pluto, and hereby set you free
from the body.' So saying, she stretches her hand and cuts
the lock : at once all heat parts from the frame, and the life
has passed into air.

2iO )

BOOK V.

^NEAS, meantime, was well on liis road, liolding with set
purpose on tlie watery way, and cutting tlirough billows
gloomed by the North Avind, with eyes ever and anon turned
back to the city, which poor Elissa's funeral flame now began
to illumine. What cause has lit up a blaze so mighty they
cannot tell ; but as they think of the cruel pangs which
follow outrage done on great love, and remember what a frantic
Avoniaii can do, the Teucrian hearts are SAvept through a train
of dismal presage.

Soon as the ships gained the mid-ocean, and no land met
the view any more — waters everywhere and everywhere skies
— a dark rain-cloud arose and stood over the hero's head,
charged with night and winter tempest, and darkness ruffled
the billow's crest. Palinurus himself, the pilot, was heard
from the lofty stern : — ' Ah ! why has such an army of storms
encompassed the heaven 1 What hast thou for us now, old
Father Xeptune 1 ' l!^o sooner said than he bids them gather
up the tackle and ply the lusty oar, and shifts the sheet to
the wind, and speaks thus : — ' Xoble iEneas, though Jove
himself were to pledge me his faith, I could not hope to reacli
Italy with a sky like this. The winds shift and storm cross-
wise, ever rising from the blackening West, and the mist is
being massed into clouds. We cannot make head against
them, or struggle as we should. Well, since Fortune exerts
Ler tyranny, let us follow, and turn our faces as she pulls the

BOOK V. 1-54. 211

rein. I tiike it, too, we are not far from the friendly brotlier-
coast of your Eryx, and the havens of Sicania, if my memory
serves me as I retrace the stars I watched long ago.' To him
good ^neas : — ' I have seen myself this long time that sueli
is the winds' will, and all your counter-efforts vain. Turn
sail and ship. Could any land indeed be welcomer, any that
I would sooner choose to harbour my weary ships, than the
land which keeps for me above ground the Dardan Acestes,
and laps in its breast the bones of my sire Anchises ? ' This
said, they make for the haven ; favouring zephyrs swell their
sail, the fleet rides swiftly over the flood, and at last they
touch with joy the strand they know so well.

Erom a *h ill's tall top Acestes had marked with wonder afar
off the new arrival, and the friendly vessels ; up he runs, all
in the savage trim of hunting-spear and Libyan bearskin —
Acestes, son of a Trojan mothecr by the river Crimisus. The
ancestral blood quickens in lus veins as he gives them joy of
their safe arrival, welcomes them Avith the jJenty of nistic
royalty, and soothes their weariness with every kind appliance.

On the morrow, when the first dawn of the bright day-
spring had put the stars to flight, ^Eneas calls his comrades
to a gathering from all the shore, and standing on a heaped
mound bespeaks them thus : — ' Mighty sons of Dardanus,
race of Heaven's high parentage, the months are all past and
the year has fulfilled its cycle, since we gave to the earth the
eartlily relics, the aslies of my deified sire, and consecrated
the altars of mourning. And now, if I err not, the very day
is here — that day which for me shall ever be a day of weeping,
ever a day of honour, since you, ye gods, have willed it so.
Though this day were to find me among the Gsetulian Syrtes,
a homeless wanderer — were it to surprise me in the Argive
main or in the streets of Mycenae — still would I pay my
yearly vows and the pomp of solemn observance, and would

212 THE .ENEID.

pile tlie altars ■n-ith their proper gifts. And now, behold,
by an unsought chance we are standing — not in truth I deem
■without the providence, the beckoning hand of Heaven — at
the very grave, the buried ashes of my sire, driven as we are
into this friendly haven. Come, then, solemnise we all the
glad celebration ; pray Ave for winds, and may He be pleased
that I should ofTer these rites yearly in a city of my own build-
ing, in a temple dedicated to himself. Two heads of oxen
Acestes, like a true son of Troy, gives you for each ship ; call
to the feasts the gods of the hearth, both those of our fathers
and those worshipped by Acestes our host. Furthermore, if
the ninth day hence the dawn-goddess restore to mortals the
genial light, and make the world visible with sunshine, I will
set up, first of all, for all Teucrian comers, a match among our
swift fleet ; then let him that is liglit of foot, and him that,
glorying in his strength, bears himself more proudly with the
dart and the flying arrow, or has confidence to join battle in
gauntlets of raw hide, let one and all be here, and look for
the prizes that victory earns. Give me your auspicious voices,
and bind your brows with green.'

This spoken, he shrouds his own brows with his mother's
myrtle. So does Helymus, so does veteran Acestes, so young
Ascanius — so the whole multitude of warriors. He was
already on his way from the council to the tomb with many
thousands round him, the centre of a great company. Hero
in due libation he pours on the ground two bowls of the wine-
god's pure juice, two of new milk, two of sacrificial blood ;
he flings bright flowers, and makes this utterance : — ' Hail to
thee, blessed sire, once more ! hail to you, ashes of one rescued
in vain, spirit and shade of my father ! It was not in Fate
that thou shouldst journey with me to the Italian frontier
and the fields of Destiny, or see the Ausonian Tiber, whatever
that name may import.' He had said this, when from the

BOOK V. 54-115. 213

depth of the grave a smooth shining serpent trailed along seven
spires, seven volumes of giant length, coiling peacefully round
the tomb and gliding between the altars : dark green flecks
■were on its back ; its scales were all ablaze with spots of golden
lustre, even as the bow in the clouds showers a thousand various
colours in the face of the sun. u3^neas stood wonder-struck :
the creature, winding its long column among the dishes and
the polished goblets, tasted of the viands, and then, innocent
of harm, re-entered the tomb at its base, leaving the altars
where its mouth had been. Quickened by this, the hero
resumes the work of homage to his sire, not knowing whether

O 7 O

to think this the genius of the spot or his father's menial spirit:
duly he slays two young sheep, two swine, two black-skinned
bullocks ; again and again he pours goblets of wine, again
and again he calls on the sovd of great Anchitcs and the shade
loosed from Acheron's prison. His comrades, too, each accord-
ing to his means, give glad offerings — they pile the altars,
they slay the bullocks ; others in their function set on the
cauldrons, and, stretched along the grass, hold the spits over
the embers and roast the flesh.

And now the expected day was come ; the steeds of Phaethon
were ushering in the goddess of the ninth dawn through a
heaven of clear light ; the rumoured spectacle and the great
name of Acestes had brought the neighbouring people from
their homes ; the holiday crowd was flooding the shore, to
gaze on the family of -.■Eneas, and some, too, ready to dispute
the prizes. First, in sight of all, the gifts are bestowed in the
midtit of the ring — hallowed tripods and verdant chaplets, and
palms, the conquerors' special guerdon — armour and raiment
of purple dye — a talent's weight of silver and gold ; and from
a mound in the centre the shrill trumpet proclaims the
sports begun. The first contest, waged with labouring oars, is
entered by four ships, the flower of the entire fleet. There is

214 THE MNEID.

^Fnestbeus, witli liis fiery crew, speeding along the swift Shark
— Mnestheus, liereafter a prince of Italy, who gives his name
to the Memmian line ; there is Gyas with his monster Chimeera,
that monster mass ^ which three tiers of stout Dardans are
pulling on, the oars rising in a triple bank ; Sergestus, from
•wliom the Sergian liouse gains the name it keeps, sails in the
mighty Centaur ; and in the sea-green Scylla Cloanthus, your
great forefather, Cluentius of Rome.

At a distance in the sea is a rock, over against the spray-
vi-ashed shore — sometimes covered by the swelling waves that
beat on it, when the wintry north winds hide the stars from
view— in a calm it rests in peace, and rises over the unruffled
■waters, a broad table-land, a welcome basking- ground for the
sea-bird. Here ^neas set up a green stem of leafy oak with
his own royal hand — a sign for tlie sailor?, that they might
know whence to begin their return, and where to double
round their long voyage. Then they choose their places
by lot : there are the captains on the sterns, a glorious sight,
gleaming far with gold and purple ; the crews are crowned
Avith thick poplar leaves, and their -bare shoulders shine
with the oil that has rubbed them. They seat them on the
benches, every arm is strained on the oar — straining they
expect the signal, and their beating hearts are drained at each
stroke by panting fear and high-strung ambition. Then, when
the shrill trumpet has uttered its voice, all in a moment dart
forward from their bounds, the seaman's shout pierces the
sky ; the upturned seas foam as the arm is drawn back to the
chest. With measured strokes they plough their furrows ;
the water is one yawning chasm, rent asunder by the oar and
the pointed beak. Not such the headlong speed when in two-
horse race the chariots dash into the plain and pour along
from their floodgates, or when the drivers shake the streaming
^ A caret in the MS. notes the omission of I'rbis opus. — [Ed.]

BOOK V. 1 1 6-1 So. 2-5

reins over tlieir flying steeds, and hang floating over the lash.
Then plaudits, and shouts of manly voices, and the clamorous
fervour of the backers, make Ihe -svhole woodland ring; the
pent-np shores keep the sound rolling ; the hills send back the
blows of the noise. See ! flying ahead of the rest, gliding
over the first water in the midst of crowd and hubbub, is
Gyas ; next him comes Cloanthus, with better oars, but the
slow pinewood's weight keeps him back. After them at equal
distance the Shark and the Centaur strive to win precedence.
And now the Shark has it. ITow she is beaten and passed by
the Centaur. Now the two ride abreast stem to stem, cutting
with their long keels the salt waves. And now they were
nearing the rock, and the goal was just in their grasp, when
Gyas, the leader, the victor of the halfway-passage, calls aloud
to his ship's pilot jMenoetes : — ' Whither away so far to my
right 1 Steer us hither ; hug the shore ; let the oar-blade graze
the cliff's on the left ; leave the deep to others.' Thus he ; but
JNIenoetes, afraid of hidden rocks, keeps turning the prow well
towards the sea. ' \Yhither away from the right course ?
]\rake for the rocks, Menoetes ! ' shouted Gyas again ; and
see ! looking back, he perceives Cloanthus gaining on him
close behind. Between Gyas' ship and the sounding rocks he
threads his way to the left, steering inward, and in an instant
jmsses the winner, leaves the goal behind, and gains the
smooth open sea. Grief turned the youth's very marrow to
flame, nor were his cheeks free from tears ; he seizes the slow
jNIenoetes, forgetting at once his own decency and his crew's
safety, and flings him headlong from the lofty stern into the
sea. Himself becomes their guide at the helm, himself their
I)ilot, cheering on the rowers, and turning the rudder to
the shore. But ]\Ienoetes, when at last disgorged from the
bottom of the sea, heavy with age, and with his dripping
Clothes all hanging about him, climbs the cliff-top, and seats

2i6 THE ^NEID.

himself on a dry rock. The Teucrians laughed as he was
falling, laughed as he was swimming, and now they laugh
as he discharges from his chest the draught of brine. Then
sprung up an ecstatic hope in the two last, Sergestus and
Mnestheus, of passing the lagging Gyas. Sergestus gets the
choice of water and comes nearer the rock — not first, how-
ever, he by a whole vessel's length — half his ship is ahead,
half is overlai)ped by the beak of his rival, the Shark. Mnes-
theus walks through the ship among the crew and cheers
them on. ' Now, now rise to your oars, old Hector's men,
whom I chose to follow me at Troy's last gasp ; now put out
the strength, the spirit I saw you exert in the Gsetulian
Syrtes, the Ionian Sea, the entangling waves of jNlalea. It is
not the first place I look for. I am not the man ; this is no
struggle for victory — yet might it Ije ! — but conquest is for
them, I^eptune, to whom thou givest it. Let our shame be
to come in last ; be this your victory, friends, to keep off
disgrace.' Straining every nerve, they throw themselves for-
ward ; their mighty strokes make the brazen keel quiver, the
ground flies from under them ; thick panting shakes their
limbs, their parched throats ; sweat flows down in streams.

A mere chance gave them the wished pre-eminence ; for
while Sergestus, blind with passion, keeps driving his prow
towards the rock nearer and nearer, and pressing through the
narrow passage, his ill star entangled him with a projecting
crag. The cliffs were jarred, the oars cracked as they met the
sharp flint, and the prow hung where it had lodged. Up
spring the sailors with loud shout, while the ship stands still.
They bring out their iron-shod poles and pointed boat-hooks,
and pick up the broken oars in the water. But Mnestlieus,
rejoicing, and keener for success, with quick plashing oars,
and the winds at his call, makes for the seas that shelve to
the coast and speeds along the clear expanse. Like as a dove

BOOK V. i8c^243. 217

euddenly startled in a cave, where in the hollow of the rock
are her home and her loved nestlings, issues out to fly over the
plain, clapping loud her pinions in terror in the cell — then,
gliding smooth through the tranquil air, she winnows her liquid
way without a motion of her rapid wings — so with Mnestheus,
so the Shark, flying of herself, cuts through the last water of
the course, so the mere impulse bears her speeding on. First
he takes leave of Sergestus, struggling with the tall rock
and the shallow water, and in vain calling for help, and learn-
ing to run along witli broken oars. Then he comes up with
Gyas and the great monster Chimera itself; she yields,
because deprived of Jier pilot. And now there remains
Cloanthus alone, just at the very end of the race ; him he
makes for, and presses on him with all the force; of elfort.
Then, indeed, the shouting redoubles — all lend their good-
will to spur on the second man, and the sky echoes with the
din. These think it shame to lose the glory that they have
won, the prize that is already their own, and would fain
barter life for renown ; tliese are feeding on success, they feel
strong because they feel that they are thought strong. Anil
perhaps their beaks would have been even and the prize
divided, had not Cloanthus, stretching out both hands over
the deep, breathed a prayer and called tlie gods to hear his
vow : — ' Powers whose is tlie rule of ocean, whose waters I
ride, for you with glad heart will I lead to your altars on
this shore a snow-Avhite bull, as a debtor should ; I will throw
the entrails afar into the salt waves, and pour out a clear
stream of wine.' He said, and deep down among the billows
there heard him all the !N'ereids and Phorcus' train, and maiden
Panopea, and father Portunus himself, with his own great
hand, pushed the ship as she moved ; fleeter than southwind
or winged arrow he flies to the land and is lodged already
deep in the haven.

2\H THE ALNEID.

Then Ancliises' son, duly summoning tlie •whole company,
proclaims by a loud-voiced herald Cloanthus conqueror, and
drapes his brow "with green bay ; he gives each crew a gift
at its choice, three bullocks, and wine, and the present of
a great talent of silver. To the cai)tains themselves ho
further gives especial honours, to the conqueror a gold-
broidered scarf, round which runs a length of jNIelibceau
purple with a double Mseander ; enwoveu therein is the royal
boy on leafy Ida, plying the swift stag with the javelin
and the chase, keen of eye, his chest seeming to heave ;
then, swooping down from Ida, the bearer of Jove's armour
has snatched him up aloft in his crooked talons, while his
aged guardians are stretching in vain their hands to heaven,
and the barking of the hounds streams furious to the sky.
Eut for him Avhose prowess gained him the second place
there is a cuirass of linked chain mail, three-threaded with
gold, wdiicli the hero himself had stripped with a conqueror's
hand from Demoleos on swift Simois' bank under the shadow
of Troy ; this he gives the Avarrior for his own, a glory and
a defence in the battle. Scarce could the tAvo servants,
Phegeus and Sagaris, support its many folds, pushing shoulder
to shoulder ; yet Demoleos, in his day, with it on his breast,
used to drive the Trojans in flight before him. The third
present he makes a pair of brazen cauldroTis, and two cups of
wrought silver, rough with fretwork.

And now all had received their presents, and each, glorying
in his treasure, was walking along with purple festooning
round his brows, when Sergestus, at last with great pain dis-
lodged from the cruel rock, his oars lost and one whole side
crippled, was seen propelling among jeers his inglorious vessel.
Like as a serpent surprised on the highway, whom a brazen
wheel has driven across, or a traveller, heavy of hand, has left
half dead and mangled by a stone, writhes its long Ijody in

BOOK V. 244-310. 2 1')

ifiefTectnal fliglit, its upper part all furv, its eyos blazing, its
hissing throat reared aloft, the lower part, disabled by the
Avound, clogs it as it wreaths its spires and doubles upon its
own joints. Such was the oarage with which the ship pushed
lierself slowly along : she makes sail, however, and enters the
haven with canvas flying. To Sergestus iEneas gives the
])resent he had promised, delighted to see the ship rescued and
the crew brought back. ITis prize is a slave, not unversed in
Pallas' labours, Pholce, Cretan born, with twin sons at her
breast.

This match dismissed, good -.Tineas takes his way to a grassy
plain, surrounded on all sides with woods and sloping lulls :
in the middle of the valley was a circle, as of a theatre ;
thither it was that the hero repaired with manj' thousands, the
centre of a vast assembly, and sat on a raised throne. Then
he invites, with hope of reward, the bold spirits who may wish
to contend in the swift foot-race, and sets up the prizes. Can-
didates flock from all sides, Teucrian and Sicanian mixed.
Nisus and Euryalus the foremost. Euryalus conspicuous for
beauty and blooming youth, Kisus for the pure love he bore
the boy ; following them came Diores, a royal scion of Priam's
illustrious stock ; then Salius and Patron together, one from
Acarnania, the other from Tegea, an Arcadian by blood ;
next two Trinacrian youths, Ilelymus and Panopcs, trained
foresters, comrades of their elder friend, Acestes, and many
others, whom dim tradition leaves in darkness. As they
crowd round him, ^neas bespeaks them thus : — ' Hear what
I have to say, and gile the heed of a glad heart. Xo one of
this company shall go away unguerdoned by me. I will give
a pair of Gnossian darts, shining with polished steel, and an
axe chased with silver for the hand to wield. This honour
all shall obtain alike. The three first shall receive prizes, and
shall wear also Avreaths of yellow-green olive. Let the first, as

220 THE MKEID.

conqueror, liave a horse, full decorated with trappings ; the
second an Amazonian quiver, full of Thracian shafts, with a
Lelt of broad gold to encompass it, and a buckle of a polished
jewel to fasten it ; let the third go away content with this
Argive helmet' This said, they take their places, and sud-
denly, on hearing the signal, dash into the course, and leave
the barrier behind, pouring on like a burst of rain, their
eyes fixed on the goal. First of all, away goes Xisus, his
limbs flying far before all the rest, swifter than wind and
winged thunderbolt ; next to him, but next at a long distance,
follows Salius ; then, at a shorter space, Euryalus third.
After Euryalus comes Helymus ; close on him, see ! flies
Diores, heel touching heel and shoulder shoulder : were the
course but longer, he would be shooting on and darting beyond
him, and turning a doubtful race to a victory.

Now they were just at the end of the course, all panting
as they reached the goal, when Nisus, the ill-starred, slides in
a puddle of blood, which lay there just as it had been spilt
after a sacrifice of bullocks, soaking the ground and the grow-
ing grass. Poor youth ! just in the moment of triumph,
he could not keep his sliddery footing on the soil he trod,
but fell flat in the very middle of unclean ordure and sacri-
ficial gore. But he forgot not Euryalus — forgot not his love
— no ! he_ threw himself in Salius' Avay, rising in that slip-
pery place — and Salius lay there too, flung on the puddled
floor. Forth darts Euryalus, and gains the first place, a
winner, thanks to his friend, cheered in his flight by plaudit
and shouting. Xext comes in Helymus and Diores, thus made
the third prize. But now Salius is heard, deafening with his
clamour the whole company in the ring and the seniors in the
first rank, and insisting that the prize, which he had lost by a
trick, be restored him. Euryalus is supported by the popular
voice, by the tears he sheds so gracefully, and the greater

BOOK V. 310-375. 22T

loveliness of worth when seen in a beauteous form. Diores
backs his claim with loud appealing shouts ; he had just won
the prize, and his attainment of the third place Avas all for
nothincc if the first reward were to be given to Salius. To
whom father ^neas : — ' Your rewards, boys, remain fixed as
they ever were ; no one disturbs the palm once arranged :
suffer me to show pity to a friend's undeserved misfortune.'
So saying, he gives Salius the enormous hide of a GiTitulian
lion, loaded with shaggy hair and talons of gold. On which
Nisus : — ' If the vanquished are rewarded so largely — if you
can feel for tumblers — what prize will be great enough for
Nisus' claims ? My prowess had earned me the first chaplet,
had not unkind Fortune played me foul, as she played Salius ; '
and with these Avords he displayed his features and his limbs,
all dishonoured by slime and ordure. The gracious prince
smiled at him, and bade them bring out a shield of Didymaon's
Avorkmanship, once wrested by the Danaans from Neptune's
hallowed gate, and with this signal present he endows the
illustrious youth.

Next, when the race was finished, and the prizes duly
given : — ' Now, whoever has courage, and a vigorous collected
mind in his breast, let him come forward, bind on the gloves,
and lift his arms.' Thus speaks ^neas, and sets forth two
prizes for the contest : for the conqueror, a bullock with
gilded horns and fillet festoons ; a sword and a splendid
helmet, as a consolation to the vanquished. In a moment,
with all the thcAvs of a giant, rises Dares, uprearing himself
amid a loud hum of applause — the sole champion who used to
enter the lists with Paris : once at the tomb Avhere mighty
Hector lies bxiried, he encountered the great conqueror Butes,
who earned his enormous bulk to the field with all the pride
of Amycus' Bebrycian blood — struck him down, and stretched
him in death on the yellow sand. Such are Dares' powers,

222 THE MNEID.

as he lifta liigh his crest for the battk-, displays his hroad
shoulders, throws out his arms alternately, and strikes the
air with his blows. How to find his match is the cry ; no
one of all that company dares to confront such a champion,
and draw on the gauntlets. So, with confident action, think-
ing that all Avere retiring from the prize, he stands before
^neas, and without further prelude grasps with his left hand
the bull by the horn, and bespeaks him thus: — 'Goddess-
born, if no one dares to take the risk of the fight, how
long are we to stand still ? How long is it seemly to keep
me waiting ? Give the word for me to carry off the prize.'
A simultaneous shout broke from Ihe sons of Dardanus,
all voting that their champion should have the promised gift
made good.

On this Acestes, with grave severity of speech, rebukes
Entellus, just as he chanced to be seated next him on the
verdant grassy couch. ' Entellus, once known as the bravest
of heroes, and all for nought, will you brook so calmly that
a prize so great be carried off without a blow 1 Where are
we now to look for that mighty deity your master, Eryx,
vaunted so often and so idly 1 AYliere is that glory which
sjDread all Trinacria through, and those spoils that hang from
your roof?' He replied : ' It is not the love of praise, not
ambition, that has died out, extinguished by fear. No,
indeed ; but my blood is dulled and chilled by the frost of
age, and the strength in my limbs withered and ice-bound.
Had I now what I once had, what is now the glory and the
boast of that loud braggart there ; had I but the treasure of
youth, I should not have needed the reward and the goodly
bullock to bring me into the field ; nor are gifts what I
care for,' So saying, he flung into the midst a pair of gaunt-
lets of enormous weight, with which the fiery Eryx was wont
to deal his blows in combat, stringing his arms with the

BOOK V. 375-433- 2:3

tou^li Lide. Every heart was amazed, so vast were the
seven huge bull-hides, hardened with patches of lead and
iron. More than aU the rest Dares is astonished, and recoils
many paces; and the hero himself, Anchises' son, stands
turning in his hands the massive Aveight and the enormous
wrappers of twisted thong. Then the old man fetched from
Ids heart words like these : — ' AVhat if any one here had seen
those mightier weapons, Hercules' own gauntlets, and the
fatal combat on this very strand ? These are the arms that
Eryx, your brother, once wielded ; you see on them still the
stains of blood and sprinkled brains. With these he stood
up against the great Alcides. These I was trained to use
while fresher blood inspired me with strength, and the snows
of age, my jealous rival, were not yet sprinkled on my brows.
Uut if Dares the Trojan refuses our Sicilian weapons, and
that is good Eneas' fixed wisli, approved by Acestes, my
backer in the fight, make we the contest even. I spare you
the bull-hides of Eryx — never fear — and do you put off your
Trojan gauntlets.' So saying, he flung off from his shoulders
his double garment, and displays the giant joints of his limbs,
the giant bone- work of his arms, and stands, a mighty frame,
in the midst of the sand.

Then Anchises' son brought out with his royal hand two
pairs of equal gauntlets, and bound round the fists of the
twain weapons of even force. At once each rose on tiptoe,
and raised his arms undaunted to the air of heaven. They
draw back their towering heads out of the reach of blows,
and make their fists meet in the melee, and provoke the
battle. The one is better in quick movement of the foot,
and youth lends him confidence ; the other's strength is in
brawny limbs and giant bulk, but his knees are heavy and
unstable, and a troubled panting shakes that vast frame,
^lany the blows that the champions hail on each other in

224 THE ^NEID.

vain ; many are showered on the liollow side, and draw loud
echoes from the chest. The fist keeps phaying round ear and
temple ; the teeth chatter under the cruel blow. Heavily
stands Entellus, unmoved, in the same strained posture ; his
bending body and watchful eye alone withdraw him from the
volley. His rival, like a general who throws up mounds
round a high- walled town, or sits down with his army before
a mountain fort, tries now this approach, now that, recon-
noitres the whole stronghold, and plies him with manifold
assaults, baffled in each. Rising to the stroke, Entellus put
forth his right hand, and raised it aloft ; the other's quick
eye foresaw the downcoming blow, and his lithe frame darts
beyond its range. Entellus has flung his Avhole force on air ;
at once, untouched by his foe, the heavy giant, with heavy
giant weight, falls to earth, even as one day falls hollow-
hearted with hollow crash on Erynianthus or lofty Ida, up-
torn by the roots, a mighty pine. Eagerly start up at once
the Teucrian and Trinacrian chivalry ; up soars a shout to
heaven ; and first runs up Acestes, and soothingly raises from
the ground his friend, aged as he. But not slackened by his
overthrow, nor daunted, the hero comes back fiercer to the
field, with anger goading force ; that mass of strength is
enkindled at last by shame and conscious prowess. All on
fire, he drives Dares headlong over the whole plain, now with
his right hand showering blows, now with his giant left. No
stint, no stay ; thick as the hail with which the storm-clouds
rattle on the roof, so thick the blows with which the hero,
crowding on with both hands, is battering and whirling Dares.
Then father iEneas thought fit to stem the tide of fury, nor
suffered Entellus' wounded spirit to glut its rage further, but
put an end to the fray, and rescued the gasping Dares with
soothing words, and bespeaks him thus : — ' My poor friend !
what monstrous madness has seized you ? See you not that

BOOK V. 434-496. 225

strength Las passed over — that the goJs have changed their
sides? Give way to Heaven.' He said, and his word clossd
the fight. But Dares is in the hands of his faitliful com-
rades, dragging after him his feeble knees, dropping his
head on this side and on that, discharging from his moutli
clotted gore, teeth and blood together. Thus they lead hiiji
to the ships ; summoned, they receive for him the helmet and
tlie sword ; the palm and the bull they leave to Entellus.
Hereon the conqueror, towering in pride of soul, and exulting
in his prize, the bull : ' Goddess-born,' cries he, ' and you,
Teucrians, take measure at once of the strength which dwelt
in. my frame, while that frame was young, and the death
from whose door you have called back, and are still keepinjr,
your Dares.' So saying, he took his stand full before ths
face of the bullock, which was there as the prize of the fray,
and with arm drawn back, swung the iron gauntlet right
between the horns, rising to his full height, crashed it down
on the bone, and shattered the brain. Prostrated, breathles?,
and quivering, on earth lies the bull. He from his bosom's
depth speaks thus over the dead : — ' Tliis life, Eryx, I render
to thee — a better substitute for Dares' death ; here, as a con-
queror may, I resign the gauntlets and the game.'

!Next iEneas invites those who may care to vie in shootln^
the fleet arrow, and sets forth the prizes. With his own
giant hand he rears upright the mast from Serestus' ship, and
from its lofty summit ties a fluttering dove Avith a cord
passed round the mast — a mark for aiming the steel. The
archers are met ; the lot has been thrown and received by the
brazen helmet. See ! first, among the shouts of his friends,
comes out before all the place of Hyrtacus' son, Hippocoon,
who is followed by Mnestheus, late conqueror in the ship-race
— Mnestheus, crowned with the green olive- wreath. Third
comes Eurytion, thy brother, thrice glorious Pandarus, who in

p

226 THE .^NEID.

elder days, bidden to destroy the truce, wast the first to wln^,
thy weapon into tlie Acha,'an ranks. Last is Acestes, sunk at
the bottom of the helm, the old man's spirit nerving his arm
to essay the task of the young. And now, with stern strength,
they bend and arch their bows, each hero his own, and draw
forth the shaft from the quiver. First tlirough heaven from
tlie twanging string the arrow of Hyrtacus' youthful son
pierces sharp and shrill the flying air : it hits — it is lodged
full in the mast-tree. After him stood keen Mnestheus,
his bowstring drawn to his breast, his bow pointing upwards,
eye and shaft levelled at once. But the bird itself, hapless
man ! his arrow had not power to touch that : it cut the knot
and the hempen fastening by which she hung, tied by the foot,
from the mast's top. Away she flew, all among the south-
winds and their murky clouds. Then, quick as thought, liis
bow long since ready, and his shaft poised on the string, Eu-
rytion breathed a vow to his brother, fixing his eye on her in
the moment of her triumph high up in the open sky, and as
she claps her wings, pierces the dark cloudy covert, and
strikes the dove. Down she drops unnerved, leaving her life
among the stars of ether, and as she tumbles to eartli, brings
back the arrow in her breast. Acestes remained alone, a
champion with no prize to gain ; yet he shot his weapon into
the air aloft, displaying at once his veteran skill and the force
of his twanging bow. And now their eyes are met by a
sudden portent, drawing a mighty augury in its train. In
after days the vast issue told the tale, and terror-striking
seers shrieked their omens too late. For as it flew in the
clouds of heaven, the reed took fire, and marked its way with
a trail of flame, and wasted and vanished wholly into unsub-
stantial air ; even as stars unfastened from the firmament oft
sweep across and drag their blazing hair as they fly. Fixed
aghast to the spot, in prayer to Heaven, hung the stout sons

BOOK V. 496-562. 227

of Tiinacria and Troy ; nor does Eneas' sovran judgment
reject the omen. He clasps the glad Acestes to his heart,
loads him with costly gifts, and bespeaks him thus : — ■' Take
them, my father ; for Olympus' mighty monarch has said by
the voice of these omens that yours is to be a prize drawn
without a lot. From Anchises the aged himself comes the
present I now bestow — a bowl embossed with figures, which
in old days Cisseus gave to my sire Anchises in royal bounty,
a standing remembrance of himself and a testimony of liis
love.' So saying, he crowns his brow with verdant bays, and
proclaims, first of all, the conquering name of Acestes. Nor
did good Eurytion grudge the pre-eminence, though he and
none but he brought down the bird from the sky. Next steps
into the prize he who cut the cord ; last, lie whose quivering
arrow nailed the mast.

But father iEneas, ere the match was over, calls to his side
the guardian and companion of lulus' tender years, Epy tides,
and thus speaks into his ear in secret : — ' Go now and tell
Ascanius, if his company of boys is ready, and the movements
of his young cavalry duly marshalled, to bring them into the
field in his grandsire's honour, and show himself in arms.'
He, by his own voice, bids the whole surging crowd retire
from the length of the circus, and leave the field clear. The
boys come prancing in on well-reined steeds, in even lines
of light brightening their parents' eyes ; and as they pass, an
admiring shout breaks from the gathered chivalry of Sicily
and Troy. All alike have their flowing hair duly cinctured
with stripped leaves ; each bears two cornel javelins tipped
with steel ; some have polished quivers at their backs ; rountf
the top of the chest goes a pliant chain of twisted gold circling
the neck. Three arc the companies of horse, three the leaders
that scour the plain ; twelve boys foUow each, a glittering
show, in equal divisions and commanded alike. The first

228 THE MNEID.'

of the youthful bands i5 led. as to victory by a young PriaJii,
•who revives his grandsiro's name, thy princely offspring,
Polites, destined to people Italy ; him a Thracian steed, carries,
dappled with spots of "white, Avith wliite on tlie extremes of
liis prancing feet, and white on his towering brow. Next
is Atys, whence comes the house of Eoman Atii— Atys the
young, the boyish friend of the boy lulus. Last of all, and
excelling all in beauty, lulus rides in on a Sidonian steed,
bestowed on him by Dido the fair, in remembrance of herself,
and in testimony of her love. The remaining youth are borne
on Trinacrian horses from old Acestes' stalls. The Dardans
welcome them with reassuring plaudits, and gaze on them
with rapture, and trace in their young faces the features of
their old sires. Soon as the riders have made their joyous
.survey of the whole gazing crowd and of their friends' loving
eyes, Epytides gives the expected signal with far-reaching
shout and loud cracking whip. In regidar order they gal-
lop asunder, the three companies breaking and parting right
and left ; and again, at the word of command, they wheel
round, and charge each other with levelled lances. Then
they essay other advances and other retreats in quarters still
opposite, each entangling each in circles within circles, and
in their real armour raise an image of battle. Now they
expose their backs in flight, now they turn their spear-points
in charge, now as in truce they ride along side by side. Even
as men tell of that old labyrinth in lofty Crete, its way
cunningly woven with blind high walls, and the ambiguous
mystery of its thousand paths, winding till the pursuer's
every trace was baffled by a maze without solution and with-
out return, not unlike are the courses in which these sons of
the Teucrians interlace their movements — a gamesome tangle
of flying and fighting, as it were dolphins that swimming
the watery seas dart through the Carpathian and the Libyan,

BOOK V. 563-624. 2-9

and sport along the billows. Such was the form of exercise,
and such the game that Ascanius, when he built the cinctur-
ing walls of Alba the Long, was the first to revive, and taught
the early Latians to celebrate it as he had done in his boy-
hood, he and the youth of Troy with him ; the men of Alba
taught their sons ; from them mighty Kome received the
tradition and maintained the observance of her sires ; and the
tjoys still bear the name of Troy, and their band is styled
the band of Troy. Thus far went the solemn games in
honour of the deified sire.

Kow it was that Fortune exchanged her old faith for new.
"While they are rendering to the tomb the due solemnities of
the varied games, Juno, Saturn's daughter, has sped down
Iris from heaven to the feet of Ilion, Avith breath of winds
to waft her on her Avay — Juno, deep-brooding over many
thoughts, her ancient wrath yet unsated. Speeding along
her many-coloured bow, seen of none, runs swiftly down the
celestial maid. She beholds that mighty concourse ; she looks
round on the coast, and sees harbour abandoned and fleet
forsaken. Far away, in the privacy of a solitary beach, the
Trojan dames were weeping for lost Anchises, and, as they
wept, were gazing, one and all, wistfully on the great deep.
Alas, that wearied souls should still have those many waters
to pass, and that vast breadth of sea ! Such the one cry
of every heart. Oh for a city ! the toils of the main ar(j
a weariness to bear ! So, then, in the midst of them, she
suddenly alights — no novice in the ways of doing hurt —
and lays by her heavenly form and heavenly raiment. She
takes the shape of Beroe, the aged wife of Doryclus of
Tmaros, a dame who once had had race and name and chil-
dren, and in this guise stands in the midst of the Dardan
matrons. ' Wretched women,' cries she, ' not to have been
dracrcred to the death of battle by the force of Achaia under

2.30 THE ^NEID.

our country's walls ! Hapless natiou ! "What worse tlian
deatli lias Fortune in store for you 1 Here is the seventh
summer rolling on since Troy's overthrow, and all the while
we are being driven, land and ocean over, among all the rocks
of an unfriendly sea, under all the stars of heaven, as through
the great deep we follow after retreating Italy, and are tossed
from wave to wave. Here is the brother-land of Eryx ; here
is Acestes, our ancient friend. Who shall gainsay digging
a foundation, and giving a people the city tliey crave ? 0
my country ! O gods of our homes, snatched in vain from
the foe ! Shall there never be walls named with the name
of Troy 1 Shall I never on earth see the streams that Hector
loved — his Xanthus and his Simois 1 Come, join me in burn-
ing up these accursed ships. For in my sleep methought the
likeness of Cassandra the seer put blazing torches into my
hands. Here,' she said, 'and here only, look for Troy : here,
and here only, is your home. The hour for action is come.
Heaven's Avonders brook not man's delay. See here ! four altars
to Keptune. The god himself gives us the fire and the will.'
So saying, she is the first to snatch the baleful brand —
swinging back her hand on high ; with strong effort she
whirls and flings it. The dames of Ilion gaze with straining
mind and wildered brain. Then one of the crowd, the eldest
of all, Pyrgo, the royal nurse of Priam's many sons : * No
Beroe have you here, matrons — this is not Doryclus' wife, of
Rhoeteum — mark those signs of heavenly beauty, those glowing
eyes — Avhat a presence is there — what features — what a tone
in her voice — Avhat majesty in her gait ! Beroe I myself
parted from but now, and left her sick and sullen to think
that she alone should fail at this observance, nor pay Anchises
the honour that is his due.' Such were her words, while
the matrons, doubtful at first, were looking on the ships with
evil eyes, distracted between their fatal yearning for a country

BOOK V. 624-687. 231

now theirs, and the voice of destiny from realms beyond the
sea — when the goddess, spreading her two wings, soared up
into the sky and severed the clouds as she flew with the
giant span of her bow. Then indeed, maddened by the portent,
goaded by frenzy, they shriek one and all, and snatch fire from
house and hearth — some strip the altars, and fling on the vessels
leaf and bough and brand. The fire-god revels in full career
along bench and oar, and painted pine-wood stern. The
news of the fleet on fire is carried by Eumelus to Anchises'
tomb, and the seats in the circus. They look back, and with
their own eyes see sparks and smoke in a black flickering
cloud. First of all Ascanius, riding in triumph at the head of
his cavalry, spurred his horse just as he was to the wildering
camp, while his breathless guardians strive in vain to stay him.
' What strange madness this 1 whither now, whither would ye
go,' cries he, 'my poor countrywomen? It is not the Argive-
foe and his hated camp — it is your own hopes that you are
burning. See, I am your own Ascanius ' — at his feet he flung
his empty helmet which he was wearing in sport as he helped
to raise the image of war. Quick follows ^neas, quick the
Teucrian host at his heels. But the matrons are flying in
panic along the coast, now here, now there, stealing to the
thickest Avoods and the deepest caves. They loathe the deed
and the daylight. Sobered, they know their friends again, and
Juno is exorcised from their souls. But not for all this will
blaze and burning resign their unslaked powers : deep
among the moistened timber smoulders the quick tow, discharg-
ing a slow lazy smoke : the crawling heat preys on the keels,
and the plague sinks down into the vessel's every limb, and
strength of giant warriors and streaming water-floods are all of
no avail. Then good ^neas began to tear his raiment from
his back and call the gods for aid, and raise his hands in
prayer : ' Jove Almighty, if thy hate would not yet sweep oti"

232 THE .ENEID.

the whole Trojan race to a man, if thy ancient goodness lias
yet any regard for human suffering, grant the fleet to escape
from flame now, Father, even now, and rescue from death the
shattered commonweal of Troy. Or else do thou with tliy
wrathful bolt send doAvn this poor remnant to the grave, if
that is my fit reward, and here with thy own rigiit hand over-
whelm us all.' Scarce had the words been breathed, when a
black tempest is set loose, raging with fierce bursts of rain :
the thunder-peals thrill through highland and lowland — down
from the whole sky pours a torrent of blinding water, thickened
to blackness by the southern winds — the ships are filled, the
smouldering timbers soaked — till every spark is quenched at
last, and all the vessels, with the loss of four, rescued from
the deadly plague.

But father ^neas, staggering under this cruel blow, began
to shift from side to side a vast burden of care, as he pondered
whether to settle in the plains of Sicily, shutting his ears to
Fate's voice, or still make for the shores of Italy. Then
Nautes the aged — whom Tritonian Pallas singled from his
Icind, to teach her lore and dower him with the fame of abun-
dant wisdom — hers the oracular utterances which told what
Heaven's aw^f ul wrath portended, or what the stern sequence
of destiny required — he it was that addressed ^neas thus in
words of comfort : ' Goddess-born, be it ours to follow as Fate
pulls us to or fro ; come what may, there is no conquering
fortune but by endurance. Here you have Acestes, the blood
of Dardanus and of gods mingling in his veins — make him
the partner of your thoughts, and invite the aid he will gladly
give. Consign to him the crews whom your missing ships
have left homeless, and those who are tired of high emprizo
and of following your fortunes — the old, old men, and tha
matrons, weary of ocean, and whatever you have that is weak
and timorsome — set these apart, and suffer them to have in

BOOK V. 687-746. 23 J

fliis land a city of rest. The town's name, witli leave given,
they shall call Acesta.'

The fire thus kindled by the Avords of his aged friend, now
indeed the thoughts of his mind distract him utterly. And
now black Night, car-borne, was mounting the sky, when the
semblance of his sire Anchises, gliding from heaven, seemed
to break on his musings in -words like these : * My son, dearer
to me of old than life, while life was yet mine — my son,
trained in the school of Troy's destiny, I come hither at the
command of Jove — of him who chased the fire from your
ships, and looked down on your need in pity from on high.
Obey the counsel Avhich Nautes the aged now so wisely gives
you. The flower of your youth, the stoutest hearts you have,
let these and these only follow you to Italy — hard and of iron
grain is the race you have to war down in Latium. Still, ere
you go there, come to the infernal halls of Dis, and travel
through Avernus' deep shades till you meet your father. No,
my son, godless Tartarus and its spectres of sorrow have no
hold on me — the company of the good is my loved resort and
Elysium my dwelling. Tlie virgin Sibyl shall point you the
way, and the streaming blood of black cattle unlock the gate.
There you shall hear of your whole posterity, and the city
that Fate has in store. And now farewell, dark Night has
reached the midst of her swift career, and tlie relentless Day-
star has touched me with the breath of his panting steeds.'
He said, and vanished, like smoke, into unsubstantial air.
' ^^^lither away now ? ' cries ^neas ; ' whither in such haste 1
from whom are you flying ? what power withholds you from
my embrace 1 ' With these words he wakes to life the embers
and their slumbering flame, and in suppliance worships the
god of Pergamus and hoary Vesta's shrine with duteous meal
and a full-charged censer.

At once he calls his friends to his side, and Acestes, first

234 THE AiNEID.

of all, shows to tliem the command of Jove, and his loved
father's precept, and what is now the settled judgment of
his mind. Brief is the parley, nor does Acestes gainsay his
bidding. Tliey remove tlie matrons to the new city's roll,
and disembark a willing crew of hearts that need not the
stir of great renown. For themselves they repair the benches
and restore the vessels' half-burnt timber, shape the oars and
fit the ropes, a little band, but a living well-spring of martial
worth, ^neas, meanwhile, is marking out the city with the
plough, and assigning the dwellings by lot, creating an Ilium
here, and there a Troy. Acestes, true Trojan, wields with joy
his new sceptre, and proclaims a court, and gives laws to his
assembled senate.^

And now the whole nation had enjoyed a nine days' banquet,
and the altars had received due observance ; the sleeping winds
have lulled the waves, and the repeated whispers of the south
invite to the deep once morn. Uprises along the winding
shore a mighty sound of weeping ; prolonged embraces make
day and night move slow. Even the matrons, even the weak-
lings, who so lately shuddered at the look of the sea, and could
not bear its name, would now fain go and endure all the weari-
ness of the journey. Them the good ^neas cheers with words
of kindness, and tearfully commends them to Acestes, his
kinsman and theirs. Then he bids slay three calves to Eryx,
and a ewe-lamb to the weather gods, and in due course has
the cable cut, while he, his head wreathed witli stript olivo
leaves, stands aloft in the prow with a charger in hand, and
far into the briny waves flings the entrails, and pours the
pparkling wine. A v/ind gets up from tlic stern, and escorts
them on their way. Each vying with each, the crews strike
the water, and sweep the marble surface.

Meanwhile Venus, harassed with care, bespeaks Neptune,
1 Three lines omitted in the MS.— [Ed.]

BOOK V. 747-811. 235

and utters from lier heart plaints like these : 'The fell wrath
of Juno's bottomless heart constrains me, Neptune, to stoop
to all the abasement of prayer — wrath that no length of
time softens, no piety of man, unconquered and unsilenced
by Jove's behest, by destiny itself. It is not enough that her
monstrous malice has torn the heart from the breast of Phrygia,
and dragged a city through an infinity of vengeance — the
remnants of Troy, the very ashes and bones of the slain —
these she pursues ; rage so fiendish let her trace to its source.
Thou thyself canst bear me witness but now in the Libyan
waters, what mountains she raised all in a moment — all ocean
she confounded with heaven, blindly relying on iEolus' storms
to convulse a realm where thou art master. See now — goading
the matrons of Troy to crime, she has basely burnt their ships,
and driven them in the ruins of their fleet to leave their mates
to a home on an unknown shore. These poor relics, then, let
tltemf I beg, spread the sail in safety along thy waters ; let
them touch the mouth of Laurentian Tiber, if my prayer is
lawful, if that city is granted them of Fate.'

Then thus spake Saturn's son, lord of the ocean deep : 'All
right hast thou, queen of Cythera, to place thy trust in these
realms of mine, whence thou drawest thy birth. And I have
earned it too — often have I checked the madness, the mighty
raving of sky and sea ; nor less on earth (bear witness Xanthus
and Simois !) has thy ^neas known my care. When Achilles
was chasing Troy's gasping bands, forcing them against their
own ramparts, and offering whole hecatombs to Death, till the
choked rivers groaned again, and Xanthus could not thread
his way, or roll himself into the sea — in that day, as ^neas
confronted Peleus' mighty son with weaker arm and weaker
aid from heaven, I snatched him away in a circling cloud
even while my whole heart was bent on overthrowing from
their base the building? of my own hand, the walls of perjured

236 THE £NEID.

Troy. As my mind was then, it abides now. Eanisli thy
fears ; safely, according to thy prayer, he sliall reach Averaus
haven. One there sliall be, and one only, whom thou shalt
ask in vain from the engulfing surge — one life, and one only,
shall be given for thousands.'

With these words, having soothed to joy the goddess' heart,
the august Father yokes his steeds with a yoke of gold, and
puts to their fierce mouth the foaming bit, and gives full
course to his flowing reins. The azure car glides lightly over
the water's surface — the waves sink down, the swelling sea
stills its waters under the wheels of thunder — the storm-
clouds fly aM'ay over the wide waste of heaven. Then come
the hundred shapes of attendant powers : enormous whales
and Glaucus' aged train, and Ino's young Paloemon, and rapid
Tritons, and the whole host that Phoreus leads ; on the left
are Thetis, and Melite, and maiden Panopea, Xesaee, and
Spio, and Thalia, and Cymodoce.

And now father ^neas feels a soft thrill of succeeding joy
shoot through his anxious bosom ; at once he bids every mast
be reared, every sail stretched on its yard-arm. One and all
.strain the rope and loosen the sheet, now right, now left —
one and all turn to and fro the sailyard's lofty horns ; the
fleet is wafted by the gales it loves. First, before all,
Palinurus led the crowding ranks ; after him the rest, as
Ijidden, shaped their course. And now dewy Night had Avell-
nigh reached the cope of heaven's arch — in calm repose the
sailors were relaxing their limbs, stretched each by his oar
along the hard benches — when Sleep's power, dropping lightly
down from the stars of heaven, parted the dusky air, and
swam through the night, in quest of you, poor Palinurus,
with a fatal freight of dreams for your guiltless head. The
god has sat down high on the stern, in the likeness of Phorbas,
and these are the words he utters: 'Son of lasus, Palinurus,

BOOK V. 8i2-8;o. 237

the sea itself is steering the fleet ; the winds breathe evenly
and fully ; it is slumber's own hour ; come, relax that strained
head, and let those weary eyes play truant from their toil.
I myself will undertake your functions awhile in your stead.'
Hardly raising his eyes, Palinurus answered him thus: — 'i
blind myself to. smiling seas and Sleeping waves : is that jowr
will ? / place my faith on this fickle monster? What 1 trust
/Eneas to lying gales and fair skies, whose fraud I have rued
so often ? ' So he said, and went on cleaving and clinging,
never dropping his hand from the rudder, nor his eye from
the stars. AVhen lo ! the god waves over his two temples
a bough dripping with Lethe's dews, and drugged by the
charms of Styx, and in his own despite closes his swim-
ming eyes. Scarce had sudden slumber begun to unstring
his limbs, when the power, leaning over him, hurled hiiu
headlong into the streaming waves, tearing away part of the
vessel's stern and the rudder as he fell, with many a cry for
help that never came, while Sleep himself soared high on his
wings into the yielding air. Safely, nevertheless, rides the
fleet over the water, travelling undaunted, in the strength of
Keptune's royal promise. And now it Avas uearing the clifls
of the Sirens' isle, cliffs unfriendly in days of old, and. white
with many a seaman's bones, and the rocks were sounding
hollow from afar with the untiring surge, when the great
Father perceived the unsteady reel of the masterless ship, and.
gi;ided it himself through the night of waters, groaning oft,
and staggering under the loss of his friend : ' Victim of faith
in the calm of sky and sea, you will lie, Palinurus, a naked
corpse on a strand unknown.'

( 2^ )

BOOK YT.

So saying aiul -weeping, he gives rope to his fleet, and in due
time is wafted smoothly to Cumg's shores of Euboean faraa
They turn their prows seaward : then the anchor with griping
fang began to moor vessel after vessel, and crooked keels
fringe all the coast. With fiery zeal the crews leap out on
the Hesperian shore : some look for the seed of fire where it
lies deep down in the veins of flint : some strip the woods,
the wild beast's shaggy covert, and point with joy to the
streams they find. But good ^neas repairs to the heights
on which Apollo sits exalted, and the privacy of the dread
Sibyl, stretching far away into a vast cavern — the Sibyl, into
whose breast the prophet that speaks at Delos breathes his
own mighty mind and soul, and opens the future to her eye.
And now they are entering the groves of the Trivian goddess
and the golden palace.

Daedalus, so runs the legend, flying from ^Minos' sceptre,
dared to trust himself in air on swift wings of his own work-
manship, sailed to the cold north along an unwonted Avay,
and at last stood buoyant on the top of this Euboean hill.
Grateful to the land that first received him, he dedicated
to thee, Phoebus, his feathery oarage, and raised a mighty
temple. On the doors was seen Androgeos' death : there too
were the sons of Cecrops, constrained — 0 cruel woe ! — to pay
in penalty the yearly tale of seven of their sons' lives : the
urn is standing, and the lots drawn out. On the other side.

BOOK VI. 1-52. 239

-hreasting the wave, the Gnossian land, frowns responsive.
I'here is Pasiphae's tragic passion for the bull, and the mingled
birth, the Minotaur, half man, half brute, a monument of
monstrous love. There is the edifice, that marvel of toiling
skill, and its inextricable maze — inextricable, had not Daeda-
lus in pity for the enthralling passion of the royal princess,
himself unravelled the craft and mystery of those chambers,
guiding the lover's dark steps with a clue of thread. You too,
poor Icarus, had borne no mean part in that splendid por-
traiture, would, grief have given art its way. Twice the artist
essayed to represent the tragedy in gold : twice the father's
hands dropped down palsied. So they would have gone on
scanning all in succession, had not Achates returned from his
errand, and with him the priestess of Phoebus and Diana,
Deiphobe, Glaucus' daughter, Avho thus bespeaks the king :
' .Not this the time for shows like these ; your present work
is to sacrifice seven bullocks luitouched by the yoke, seven
sheep duly chosen.'

This said to ^ueas, Avhose followers swiftly perform the
prescribed rites, she summons the Teucrians into the lofty
temple, herself its priestess. One huge side of the Euboean
cliff has been hollowed into a cave, approached by a hundred
broad avenues, a hundred mouths — from these a hundred
voices are poured, the responses of the Sibyl. Just as they
were on the threshold, ' It is the moment to pray for the
oracle,' cries the maiden ; ' the god, the god is here.' Thus
as she spoke at the gate, her visage, her hue changed suddenly
—her hair started from its braid — her bosom heaves and
pants, her wild soul swells with frenzy — she grows larger to
the view, and her tones are not of earth, as the breath of
the divine presence comes on her nearer and nearer. ' What !
a laggard at vows and prayers 1 ^neas of Troy a laggard 1
for that is the only spell to part asunder the groat closed lips

i40 THE JENEID.

of tlie tciTor-smittcn shrine.' She said, and was mute. A
cold shudder runs through the Teucrians' iron frames, and
their king pours out liis very soul in prayer : ' Phoebus,
ever Troy's pitying friend in her cruel agonies — tliou who
didst level Paris' Dardan how and string his Dardan arm
.against the vast frame of iEacides — by thy guidance I have
penetrated all these unknown seas that swathe mighty con-
tinents. The Massylian tribes, thrust away by Nature out
of view, and the quicksands that environ their coasts — now
at last our hands are on the flying skirts of Italy. Oh,
let it suffice Troy's fortune to have followed us thus far !
Ye too may now justly spare our nation of Pergamus, gods
and goddesses all, whose eyes Avere affronted by Troy and
the great glories of Dardan land. Aird thou, most holy pro-
phetess, that canst read the future as the present, grant me
— I am asking for no crown that Fate does not owe me — grant
a settlement in Latium to the Teucrians and their wandering
gods, even the travel-tost deities of Troy. Then to Phoebus
and his Trivian sister I will set up a temple of solid marble,
and appoint feast-days in Phoebus' name. For thee too an
august shrine is in store in that our future realm. For there
I will lodge thy oracles and the secret words of destiny which
thou shalt speak to my nation, and consecrate chosen men to
thy gracious service. Only commit not thy strains to leaves,
lest they float all confusedly the sport of the whirling winds.
Utter them with thine own mouth, I implore thee.' So his
prayer ended.

But the prophetess, not yet Phoebus' willing slave, is storm-
ing with giant frenzy in her cavern, as though she hoped to
unseat from her bosom the mighty god. All the more sharply
lie plies her mouth with his bit till its fury flags, tames her
savage soul, and moulds her to his will by strong constraint.
And now the hundred miglity doors of the chamber have flown

BOOK VI. 53-112. 241

open of their own accord, and arc wafting through the air the
voice of prophecy /' 0 you whose vast perils by sea are over
at length ! but on land there are heavier yet in store. The
sons of Dardanus shall come to the realm of Lavinium— from
this care set your mind at rest — but think not that they shall
also have joy of their coming. War, savage war, and the
Tiber foaming with surges of blood, is the vision I see. No
lack for you of Simois, or Xanthus, or a Dorian camp. Another
Achilles is reserved for Latium, he too goddess-born — nor will
Juno ever be seen to quit her fastened hold on Troy — while
you, a needy suppliant — what nation, what city in Italy will
not have had you knocking at its gates ! Once more will an
alien bride bring on the Teucrians all this woe — once more a
foreign bed. But you,-yield not to affliction, but go forth all
the bolder to meet it, so far as your destiny gives you leave.
The first glimpse of safety, little as you dream it, shall dawn
on you from a Grecian town.'

Such are the words with which Cumse's Sibyl from her cell
shrills forth awful mysteries and booms again from the cavern,
robing her truth in darkness — such the violence with which
Apollo shakes the bridle in her frenzied mouth and plies her
bosom with his goad. Soon as her frenzy abated and the mad-
ness of her lips grew calm, ^neas the hero began : * No feature,
awful maiden, that suffering can show rises on my sight new
or unlooked-for — I have foreseen all and scanned all in fancy
already. I have but one prayer to make : since here it is that
Fame tells of the gate of the infernal monarch, and the murky
pool of Acheron's overflow, grant me to pass to the sight, to
the presence of my loved father — teach the way, and imlock
the sacred doors. Him I bore away through flames and a
driving tempest of darts on these my shoulders and rescued
him from the midst of the foe : he was the companion of my
journey, and encountered with me all the waves of ocean, all

Q

V

iV

242 THE JENEID.

the terrors of sea and sky in liis own feeble frame, beyond tlie
strength and the day of old age. Nay more — that I would
kneel to thee and approach thy dwelling — this was his charge,
Ills oft^repeated prayer. Oh, of thy grace, pity the son and the
sire ; for thou art all-powerful, nor is it for nought that Hecate
lias set thee over the groves of Avernus. If Orpheus had the
power to fetch back the shade of his wife, by the help of his
Thracian lyre and its sounding strings — if Pollux redeemed
his brother by dying in turn with him, and went and returned
on the path those many times — why talk of Theseus, why of
great Alcides ? my line, like theirs, is from Jove most high.'

Such were his prayers, while his hands clasped the altar,
when thus the prophetess began : ' Heir of the blood of gods,
son of Anchises of Troy, easy is the going down to Avernus — ■
all night and all day the gate of gloomy Pluto stands unbarred ;
but to retrace your footsteps, and win your way back to the
upper air, that is the labour, that the task. There have been
a few, favourites of gracious Jove, or exalted to heaven by the
bhize of inborn worth, tliemselves sprung from the gods, who
liave had the power. The whole intervening space is possessed
by woods, and lapped round by the black windings of Cocytus'
stream. And now, if your heart's yearning is so great, your
])assion so strong, twice to stem the Stygian pool, twice to
gaze on the night of Tartarus — if it be your joy to give scope
to a madman's striving — hear wliat must first be done. Deep
in the shade of a tree lurks a branch, all of gold, foliage alike
and limber twig, dedicated to the service of the Juno of the
shades ; it is shrouded by the whole labyrinth of the forest,
closed in by the boskage that darkens the glens. Yet none
may pierce the subterranean mystery, till a man have gathered
from the tree that leafy sprout of gold, for this it is that fair
Proserpine has ordained to be brought her as her own proper
iribute. Pluck off one, another is there unfailingly, of gold

BOOK VI. 113-174- 243

as pure, a twig burgeoning with as fine an ore. Let tlien your
eye be keen to explore it, your hand quick to pluck it when
duly found, for it will follow the touch with willingness and
ease, if you have a call from Fate ; if not, no strength of yours
will overcome it, no force of steel tear it away. But, besides'?;
this, you have the breathless corpse of a friend lying unburied
— alas ! you know it not — tainting your whole fleet with the
air of death, while you are asking Heaven's will, and linger-
ing on this our threshold. Ilim first consign to his proper
place, and hide him in the grave. Lead black cattle to theV)
altar : be this the expiation to pave your way. Thus at last
you shall look on the groves of Styx and the realms untrodden
of the living.' She said, and closed her lips in silence.

^neas, with saddened face and steadfast eye, moves on,
leaving the cave behind, and revolves in his mind the secrets
of the future. Achates, ever faithful, walks at his side, and
plants his foot with no less consciousness of care. Many were
the things exchanged in their ranging talk — who could be the
dead comrade that the priestess spoke of, what the corpse that
needed burial And lo ! Misenus, soon as they came, there
on the dry beach they see him, snatched by death that should
have spared him — Misenus, son of ^olus, than whom none
was mightier to stir men's hearts with his clarion, and kindle
with music the war-god's flame. Hector the great had been
his chief : in Hector's service he performed a warrior's part,
famous alike with the trumpet and the spear. But after the
conquering arm of Achilles robbed his master of life, valiant
hero, he made himself the comrade of the Dardan ^neas, nor
found the standard he followed meaner than of old. But in
those days, as he was making his hollow shell ring over the
waters, infatuate mortal, challenging the gods to competu,
Triton, roused to jealousy, seized him, if the story be true,
and plunged him in a moment in the billow that laps among

244 THE /ENEID.

the rocks. So they all stood round, uttering loud shrieks ;
louder than the rest ^neas the good. And then without delay
they set ahout the Sibyl's bidding, weeping sore, and in mourn-
ful rivalry heap up the funeral pyre with trees, and carry it
into the sky.

Away they go to an ancient wood, the wild beast's tall
covert — down go the pitch-trees ; the holm-oak rings Avith the
axe's blows, and so do the ashen beams ; the wedge cleaves
through the fissile oak ; they roll down from the heights huge
mountain ashes. There is ^neas, in this, as in other labours,
the first to cheer on his comrades, and wielding a weapon like
theirs ; and thus he ponders in the sad silence of his own
breast, looking at the immeasurable wood, and thus gives
utterance to his prayer : ' Oh that at this moment that golden
branch on the tree would reveal itself to our sight in all this
depth of forest ! for I see that in all things the prophetess
has told us of you, Misenus, alas ! too truly ! ' Scarce had ho
f I Pspoken, when, as by chance, a pair of doves come flying along
the sky, under the hero's very eyes, and settle on the turf at
his feet. At once the mighty chief recognises his mother's
birds, and gladly breathes a second prayer : ' Oh guide us on
our way, wherever it be, and as ye fly direct our steps into the
grove Avhere the precious branch casts its shade on the rich
ground ! Thou too forsake not our perplexity, 0 goddess
mother ! ' Thus much he said, and checked his advancing
foot, watching to see what prognostics they bring, whither
they aim their onward course. They, as they graze, go ever
forward on the wing, as fur as the eyes of the travellers can
keep them in view. Then wdien they come to Avernus'
noisome jaws, swiftly they soar aloft, and gliding through tlio
clear sky, settle twain on the same tree, their chosen scat,
whence there flashed through the branches the contrasted
J. gleam of gold. Even as in the woods, in the cold of mid-

BOOK VI. 175-235. =-;s

winter, the mistletoe is wont to put forth new leaves, a veget-
able growth, but of no parent tree, and with its yellow produce
to surround the tapering holes, so looked the leafy gold among
the holm-oak's dark shade — so in the light breeze tinkled the
foil, -^neas snatches it at once, plucks it off with eagerness
overpowering its delay, and carries it to the home of the
]irophetic Sibyl

Meantime, with not less zeal, the Teucrians on the shore
Mere mourning for Misenus, and paying the last honour to the
thankless ashes. First they raised a pile, unctuous with pine-
wood, and high-heaped Avith planks of oak : they wreath its
sides with gloomy foliage, and set u]) before it funeral cypresses,
and adorn it with a covering of refulgent armour. Some
make ready heated water and cauldrons bubbling over tlie
fire, and wash and anoint the cold corpse. Loud rings the
Avail : then, the dirge over, they place the limbs on the couch
that claims them, and fling over them purple garments, the
dead men's usual covering. Some put their shoulders to the
lieavy bier in melancholy service, and after ancestral fashion,
with averted eyes, apply the torch from under. The rich
lieap is ablaze — offerings of incense, sacrificial viands, oil
streaming from the bowl. After that the ashes were fallen in
and the blaze was lulled, they drenched with wine the relics
and the thirsty embers on the pyre, and Corynaeus gathered
up the bones, and stored them in a brazen urn. He, too,
carried round pure Avater, and sprinkled thrice the comrades
of the dead, scattering the thin drops Avith a branch of fruitful
olive — so he expiated the company, and sjioke the last solemn
Avords. But good ^neas raises over the dead a monument of
massive size, setting up for the hero his OAvn proper arms, the
oar and the trumpet, under a skiey mountain, Avhich is noAv
from him called Misenus, and retains from age to ag^i the
everlasting name.

246 THE MNEID.

This done, he hastens to execute the Sibyl's bidding. A
deep cave there was, yawning wide with giant throat, rougli
and shingly, shadowed by the black pool and the gloom of
the forest — a cave, over whose mouth no winged thing could
fly unharmed, so poisonous the breath that exhaling from
its pitchy jaws steamed up to the sky — whence Greece has
given the spot the name Aornos. Here first the priestess
places in sacrificial station four black-skinned bullocks, and
empties wine over their brows, and plucking from between
their horns the hairs of the crown, throws them into the hal-
lowed flame, as the firstfruits of worship, with loud cries
on Hecate, queen in heaven and Erebus both. Others put
the knife to the throat, and catch in chargers the steaming
blood. "With his own sword ^neas strikes down a lamb of
sable fleece, for the Furies' mother and her mighty sister, and
a barren heifer for thee, dread Proserpine. Then to the
Stygian monarch he rears altars, blazing through the darkness,
and piles on the flame the bulls' carcases entire, pouring fat
oil on the entrails all aglow. When, hark ! as the sun began
to glimmer and dawn, the ground is bellowing under their
feet, and the wood-crowned heights are nodding, and the
baying of dogs sounds through the gloom, for the goddess is
at hand. ' Hence, hence with your unhallowed feet ! '
clamours the proi^hetess, ' and rid the "whole grove of your
I)resence. And you — strike into the road, and pluck your
sword from his scabbard — now is the hour for courage, ^Eneas,
now for a stout heart.' No more she said, but flung herself
wildly into the cavern's mouth ; and he, with no faltering
step, keeps pace with his guide.

Ye gods, whose empire is the shades — spirits of silence,
Chaos and Phlegethon, stretching wide in the stillness of
night, suffer me to tell Avhat has reached my ears ; grant me
your aid to reveal things buried underground, deep and dark.

BOOK VI. 236-300. 247

On they went, darkling in solitary night, far into the \/
gloom, through Phito's void halls and ghostly realms — like a ^ %•
journey in a Avood under the niggard beams of a doubtful
moon, when Jupiter has shrouded heaven in shadow, and
black Night has stolen the colour from Nature's face. Tliere
before the threshold, in the very mouth of Hell, Agony and
the fiends of Remorse have made their lair : there dwell
Man Diseases, and woful Age, and Terror, and Hunger that
prompts to Sin, and loathly Want — shapes of liideous view —
and Death, and Suffering ; then comes Sleep, Death's blood-
brother, and the soul's guilty joys, and deadly "War couched in
the gate, and the Furies' iron chambers, and frantic Strife,
with bloody fillets wreathed in her snaky hair.

In the midst there stands, with boughs and aged arms out-
spread, a massive elm, of broad shade, the chosen seat, so
Rumour tells, of bodiless dreams, which cling close to its
every leaf. There, too, are a hundred monstrous shapes of
Avild beasts of divers kinds. Centaurs stalled in the entrance
and two-formed Scyllas, and Briareus, the hundred-handed,
and the portent of Lerna, hissing fearfully, and Chimsera in
her panoply of flames, Gorgons, and Harpies, and the sem-
blance of the three-bodied spectre. At once ^neas grasps
his sword, in the haste of sudden alarm, and meets their
advance with its drawn blade ; and did not his companion
warn him, of her own knowledge, that they are but thin
unbodied spirits flitting in a hollow mask of substance, he
would be rusliing among them, and slashing shadows asunder
with the steel's unavailing blows.

Hence runs the road that leads to the waters of Tartarean
Acheron, whose gulfy stream, churning mud in its monstrous
depths, is all aglow, and disgorges into Cocytus the whole of
its sand. These waters are guarded by a grisly ferryman,
frightful and foul — Charon ; his chin an uncleared forest of

248 THE ^NEID.

jioary hair ; las eyes a mass of flame ; while his uncleanly garb
hangs from his shoulders, gathered into a knot. "With his
own hand he pushes on the craft Avith a pole, and trims the
sails, and moves the dead heavily along in his boat of iron-
grey, himself already in years ; hut a god's old age is green
and vigorous. Towards him the whole crowd was pouring to
the hank : matrons and warriors, and bodies of mighty heroes
discharged of life, boys and unwedded maidens, and youths
laid on the pile of death in their parents' eyes — many _as are
the leaves that drop and fall in the woods in autumn's early
cold, or many as are the birds that flock massed together from
the deep to the land, when the wintry year drives them over
sea to tenant a sunnier clime. There they stood, each praying
that he might be the first to cross, with hands yearningly out-
stretched towards the further shore ; but the grim boatman
takes on board now these, now those, while others he drives
away, and bars them from the river's brink. JEneas cries as
a man perplexed and startled by the tumult : ' Tell me, dread
maiden, what means this concourse to the stream 1 Of what
are these sjiirits in quest ? What choice decides that these
shall retire from the shore, while those are rowing through
that leaden pool ? ' To him in brief returned the aged priestess :
' Son of Anchises, Heaven's undoubted offspring, before you
are Cocytus' depths and the marshy flood of Styx, that power
by whose name the gods fear to swear in vain. The whole
multitiide you see here is helpless and tombless ; Charon is
the ferryman ; those who ride the wave are the buried. He
may not ferry them from the dreadful banks across that noisy
current till their bones have found a place of rest. A hundred
years they wander hovering about these shores ; then at last they
embark, and see again the flood of their longing.' Anchises'
son stood and paused, musing deeply, and pitying at his heart
u lot so unkind. Yes, there he sees, sadly wandering without

BOOK VI. 500-302. 249

death's last tribute, Leucaspis and Orontes, the captain of
Lycia's fleet : both had sailed with him from Troj' over the
stormy water, and the south wind whelmed them both, engulf-
incT the vessel and its crew.

Lo ! he sees his pilot, Palinurus, moving along — Palinurus,
who but now, while voyaging from Libya, his eyes bent on the
stars, had fallen from the stern, flung out into the wide waste
of waters. So when he had at last taken knowledge of his
features, now saddened, in the deep gloom, he thus accosts
him first : ' Who was it, Palinurus, of all the gods, that tore
you from us, and whelmed you in the wide sea? Tell me
who. Till now I never found him false ; but in this one
response Apollo has proved a clieat, foretelling that yuu
would be unharmed on the deep, and win your way to the
Ausonian frontier, and thus it is that he keeps his Avord!'
/ * l^ay,' returned he, ' my chief, Anchises' son, Phoebus' tripotl
lias told you no lie, nor did any god whelm me in the sea.
No, I chanced to fall, tearing away by main force the rudder,
to which I was clinging like sentry to his post, as I guided
your course, and dragging it with me in my headlong
whirl. Witness those cruel Maters, I felt no fear for my
own life like that which seized me for your ship, lest, dis-
armed and disabled, shaken loose from her ruler's hand, she
should give way under the great sea that was rising then.
Three long nights of storm the south wind swept me over
the vast wilderness of convulsed ocean. Hardly at last, at
the fourth dawn, I looked out aloft upon Italy from the crest
of the wave. Stroke by stroke I was swimming to shore ;
and now I Avas just laying hold on safety, had not the savage
natives come on me, sword in hand, clogged as I was with
my dripping clothes, and clutching Avith talon fingers the
steep mountain-top, and deemed blindly they had found a
j)rize. Now the wave is my home, and the winds keep

250 THE .^NEID.

tossing me on the beach. Oh, by heaven's pleasant sunshine
and bright sky ; by your father, I adjure you ; by the pro-
mise growing iip with your lulus, rescue me with that uncon-
quered arm from this cruel fate : be yourself, and either
spread earth upon me, for that you can surely do, and put
back to Velia's haven ; or, if any way there be, any that your
goddess mother can reveal — for well I ween it is not without
Heaven's leave that you purpose to stem these fearful tides
and the reluctant pool of Styx — stretch j^our hand to your
poor friend, and take me with you over the water, that at
least I may find in death a place of rest and peace.' So had
he spoken, when thus the priestess begins: 'What demon,
Palinurus, has set on you so monstrous a desire ? You, un-
buried, look on the Stygian water, and the dread river of
the furies ? You set foot on the bank unbidden 1 Cease to
dream that Heaven's destiny can be swayed by prayer. Yet
hear and retain a word which may console your hard lot.
For know that the dwellers in that fatal border, goaded for
and wide through their cities by prodigies from heaven, shall
propitiate your dust : they shall erect a tomb, and through
that tomb send down your funeral dues, and the spot shall
bear for ever the name of Palinurus.' These words allayed
his cares, and banished for awhile grief from that sad bosom :
his heart leaps to the land that is called by his name.
J They accordingly continue their journey, and approach the
river. Soon as the boatman saw them, at the moment, from
the wave of Styx, moving through the stilly forest, and turn-
ing their steps to the bank, he first bespeaks them thus, and
assails them unaccosted : ' You, whoever you are, that are
making for these waters of ours in warlike trim, speak your
errand from the spot Avhere you are, and come no nearer. This
is the place for the shadows, for Sleep and slumberous Night.
The bodies of the living may not be ferried in my Stygiau

BOOK VI. 363-41 S. 251

barque. Nay, it was not to my joy that I gave Alcides a
l)assage over the lake, nor Theseus and Pirithous, born of
gods though they were, and of strength unsubdued. Tlie one
laid a jailer's hand on the warder of Tartarus, even at the foot
of the king's own throne, and dragged him trembling along :
the others essayed to carry off the queen from Pluto's bridal
chamber.' To which the Amphrysian priestess replied in
Itrief: 'Here there are no stratagems like those: be not
discomposed ; these weapons are not borne for violence ; tlie
monstrous guardian of your gate is free to terrify the blood-
less spectres from his den with his unending bark; Proserpine
is free to keep her uncle's home as faithful wife should.
This is ^neas of Troy, renowned for piety and arms alike:
it is to see his father that he is going down to Erebus' lowest
depth of gloom. If thou art moved in nought by the spec-
tacle of piety so signal, yet let this branch ' — she uncovered
the branch which was concealed in her robe — ' claim recogni-
tion.' At once the angry swell subsides, and the breast is
calm. No further parley. Gazing in wonder at the sacred
offering of the fated bough, last seen so long ago, he turns to
them the sea-green * boat, and draws near the bank. Then he
dislodges other ghostly passengers who were sitting along the
benches, and clears the gangways, while lie takes into the
vessel's hollow the mighty .^neas. The sutures of the boat
cracked beneath the weight, as through its rents it drew in
large draughts of marsh-water. At length priestess and prince
are safe across the flood, set down amid featureless mud and
Ijlue-green rushes.

Cerberus, the monster, makes the whole realm ring with his
three barking throats, as he lies in giant length fronting them

* So the MS. reads as a translation of Ccervleam which, in his note on
this passage, Mr. Conington explains as the same as ferrugineam, trau-
slated ' iron-grey' above. — [Ed. J

252 THE ^NEID. '

in his den's nioutli. The priestess, seeing the snakes ah-eady
bristling on his neck, throws him a morsel steeped in tlie
shimber of honey and medicated meal. He, in the frenzy of
hunger, opens his triple jaws to catch it as it conies, and
stretches his enormous back at length on tlie ground, till
liis huge bulk covers the den. -^neas masters the approacli
Avhile the warder sleeps, and swiftly passes from the bank of
the river without return.

At once there breaks on his ear a voice of mighty wailing,
infant spirits sobbing and crying on the threshold, babes that,
portionless of the sweets of life, were snatched from the breast
by the black death-day's tyranny, and whelmed in untimely
night. Next to them are those who were done to death by
false accusation. Yet let none think that the lot of award
or the judge's sentence are wanting here. There sits Minos,
the president, urn in hand : he snmmons an assembly of
the speechless, and takes cognisance of earthly lives and
earthly sins.

Next to them comes the dwelling-place of the sons of sorrow,
who, though guiltless, procured their own death by violence,
and, for mere hatred of the sunshine, flung their lives away.
Oh, how gladly would they now, in the air above, bear to the
end the load of poverty and the full extremity of toil ! ]>ut
Yiite bars the way : the unlovely pool swathes them round
in her doleful waters, and Styx, with her ninefold windings,
keeps them fast.

Not far hence the traveller's eye sees stretching on every
side the Mourning Fields : such the name they bear. Here
dwell those whom cruel Love's consuming tooth has eaten to
tlie heart, in the privacy of hidden walks and an enshrouding
myrtle wood : their tender sorrows quit them not even in
death. In this region he sees Pliaedra and Procris, and sad
Eriphyle, pointing to the wounds of her rutliless son, and

BOOK VI. 41S-476. 253

Evadne, and Pcisipliae : along with them moves Laodamia, and
Caeneus, once a man, now a woman, brought back by the turn
of fate to her former self. Among these was Phoenicia's
daughter, Dido, fresh from her death-wound, wandering in
that mighty wood : soon as the Trojan hero stood at her side,
and knew her, looming dimly through the dusk — as a man
sees or thinks he sees through the clouds, when the month
is young, the rising moon — his tears broke forth, and he ad-
dressed her tenderly and lovingly. ' Unhappy Dido ! and was
it then a true messenger that reached me with the tale that
you were dead : that the sword had done its worst 1 Was
it, alas, to a grave that I brought you ? By the stars of
heaven I swear, by the powers above, by all that is most
sacred here underground, against my will, fair queen, I quitted
your coast. No; it was the command of the gods; the
same stern force which compels me now to pass through
this realm of shade, this wilderness of squalor and abysmal
night ; it was that which drove me by its uttered will : nor
could I have thought that my departure would bring on you
such violence of grief. Stay your step, and withdraw not
from the look I bend on you. Whom would you shun ?
the last word which fate suffers me to address you is this.'
With words like these, ^neas kept soothing the soul that
blazed forth through those scowling eyes, and moving himself
to tears. She stood with averted head and eyes on the ground,
her features as little moved by the speech he essayed as if she
held the station of a stubborn flint, or a crag of Marpessa.
At length she flung herself away, and, unforgiving still, fled
into the shadow of the wood, where her former lord, Sychseus,
answers her sorrows with his, and gives her full measure for
her love. Yet, none the less, ^neas, thrilled through and
through by her cruel fate, follows far on her track with tears,
and sends his pity along with her.

254 THE ^NEID.

Thence he turns, to encounter the appointed wa}'. And
now they were already in the furthest region, the separate
place tenanted by the great lieroes of war. Here there meets
him Tydeus, here Parthenopseus, illustrious in arms, and the
spectre of pale Adrastus. Here are chiefs of Dardan line,
wailed long and loudly in the upper air as they lay low in
fight : as he saw them all in long array, he groaned heavily.
Glaucus and Medon, and Thersilochus, the three sons of
Antenor, and Polyphoetes, Ceres' priest, and Ideeus, with his
hand still on the car, still on the armour. They surround
liim, right and left, the ghostly crowd ; one look is not
sufficient : they would fain linger on and on, and step side
by side with him, and learn the cause of his coming. But the
nobles of the Danaans, and the flower of Agamemnon's bands,
when they saw the hero and his armour gleaming through the
shade, were smitten with strange alarm : some turn their backs
in flight, as erst they fled to the ships : others raise a feeble
war-shout. The cry they essay mocks their straining throats.

Here it is that he sees Priam's son, mangled all over,
Deiphobus, his face cruelly marred — face and both hands —
his temples despoiled of his ears, and his nose lopped by
unseemly carnage. Scarce, in truth, he recognised him,
trembling as he was, and trying to hide the terrible vengeance
wreaked on hira : unaccosted, he addresses him in the tones he
knew of old : ' Deiphobus, mighty warrior, scion of Teucer's
illustrious stock, who has bad the ambition to avenge himself
so cruelly? who has had his will of you thus? For me,
Rumour told me on that fatal night that you had sunk down,
tired with the work of slaughtering the Greeks, on a heap of
undistinguished carnage. Then with my own hand, I set up
an empty tomb on the Ehoetean shore, and thrice with a loud
voice invoked your spirit. There are your name and your
arms to keep the spot in memory : your self, dear friend, I

BOOK VI. 477-53"- 255

could not see, so as to give you repose in the fatherland I was
leaving.'^ To whom the son of Priam: 'Dear friend, you
have failed iu nought : all that Deiphobus could claim has
been paid by you to him and to his shade. No ; it was my
own destiny and the deadly Avickedness of the Spartan woman
that plunged me thus deep in ill : these tokens are of her
leaving. How we spent that fatal night in treacherous joyance
you know well : too good cause is there to bear it in mind.
When the fateful horse at one bound surmounted the heiglit
of Pergamus, and brought a mailclad infantry in its laden
womb, she feigned a solemn dance, and led round the city
Phrygian dames in Bacchic ecstasy ; herself in their midst
raising a mighty torch aloft, and calling to the Danaans from
the top of the citadel That hour I, spent with care and over-
borne with sleep, was in the hold of our ill-starred bridal
chamber, weighed down as I lay, by slumber sweet and sound,
the very image of the deep calm of death. Meantime, my
peerless helpmate removes from the house arms of every sort :
yes, my trusty sword she had withdrawn from my pillow, and
now she calls Menelaus to come in, and throws wide the door,
hoping, I doubt not, that the greatness of the boon wouhl
soften her lover's heart, and that the memory of her crime of
old could thus be wiped from men's minds. Why make the
story long ? They burst into the chamber, along with them
that child of JEolus, then as ever the counsellor of evil. Recom-
pense, ye gods, the Greeks in kind, if these lips, that ask for
retribution, are pure and loyal. But you ; what chance has
brought you here in your lifetime, let me ask in turn 1 Are
you come under the spell of ocean-wandering, or by the com-
mand of heaven 1 or what tyranny of fortune constrains you
to visit these s^d, sunless dwellings, the abode of confusion ? '
In this interchange of talk, the Dawn-goddess in her flu.sh-
ing car, careering through the sky, had well passed the summit

256 THE MNEID.

of the arch ; and perchance tliey Imd spent all their allotted
time in converse like this, had not the Sibyl warned her
companion with brief address : ' Night is hastening, ^neas ;
and we, as we weep, are making honxs-pass. Tliis is the spot
where the road parts in twain. The right, which goes under
the palace- wall of mighty Dis — there lies our way to El.Y:§.iuni ;
the leffputs in motion the tortures of the wicked, and sends
them to Tartarus, the home of crime.' Deiphobus replieil :
'Frown not, dread priestess; I depart, to make the ghostly
number complete, and plunge again in darkness. Go on your
way, our nation's glory, go : may your experience of fate bo
more blest.' He said, and, while yet speaking, turned away.

Suddenly, ^Eneas looks back, and, under a rock on the left,
sees a broad stronghold, girt by a triple wall ; a fierce stream
surrounds it with surges of fire, Tartarean Phlegethon, and
tosses craggy fragments in thunder. Full in front is a vast
gate, its pillars of solid adamant. No force of man, not even the
embattled powers of heaven, could break it down, Rising in
air is a turret of iron, and Tisiphone, with a gory robe girt
round her, sits at the vestibule with sleepless vigilance night
and day. Hence sounds of wailing meet the ear, and the
crack of remorseless whips ; the clank of steel follows, and
the trailing of the chain. ^iEneas stood still, riveted by the
terror of the noise. 'What shapes is guilt wearing now? tell
me, dread maiden. What are the torments that lie on it so
hard 1 what mean these loud upsoaring shrieks 1 ' The priestess
returned : ' Noble leader of the Teucrians, no innocent foot
may tread that guilty threshold ; but the day when Hecate
set me over the groves of Avernus, she tauglit me from her
own lips the punishments of Heaven, and led me through from
end to end. Here rules Gnosian Rhadamanthus, a reign of
iron — avenger, at once, and judge of cowering guilt, he com-
pels a confession of what crimes soever men in upper air,

BOOK VI. 537-600. 257

Mindly rejoicing in the cheat, have kept secret till the hour
of death, to be expiated then. In a moment, Tisiplione the
torturer, Avith uplifted scourge, lashes from side to side the
spurned and guilty soul : and brandishing in her left grim
knots of serpents, summons her unpitying sisterhooiL Then
at last, grating on their dread-sounding hinge, the awful
gates are opened. See you what manner of sentry is seated
at the entrance 1 what a presence is guarding the threshold ?
Know that a Hxdra fiercer yet with fifty monstrous throats,
each a yawning pit, holds her seat within. Then there is the
abyss of Tartarus in sheer descent, extending under the shades,
twice as far as man's skyward gaze from earth to the heaven
of Olympus. Here are earth's ancient progeny, the Titan brood,
liurled down by the thunderbolt to wallow in the depths of
the gulf. Here too saw I the twin sons of Aloeus, frames of
giant bulk, who essayed by force of hand to pluck down the
mighty heavens, and dislodge Jove from his realm in the sky.
I saw too Salmoneus, smitten with cruel vengeance, while
mimicking the fires of Jove and the rumblings of Olympus.
Eorne in a four-horse car, a flaring torch in liand, he was
making his triumphal progress through the tribes of Greece,
and the midst of Elis' city, and bidding men accord him a
god's homage. Madman ! to counterfeit the storm-cloud and
the unrivalled thunder-bolt with the rattle of brass and the
beat of horses' horny hoofs. But the almighty sire from the
depth of his cloudy dwelling hurled his weapon — no futile
firebrand his, no pinewood's smoky glare — and dashed him
lieadlong down with that tremendous blast, Tjtyos^ too, the
foster-child of Earth's common breast, it was mine to see : his
body lies extended over nine whole acres, and there is a mon-
strous vulture Avith hooked beak shearing away his imperish-
able liver, and reaping a harvest of suftering from his vitals,
as it digs deep for its meal, and burrows in the cavern of his

1

258 THE .ENEID.

breast, nor gives the new-growing filaments rest or respite.
AVliat need to tell of tlie I.apitlise, of Ixion and Pirithous —
men who live under a black crag, ever falling, and just in act
to drop ? The lofty couch is spread for the banquet, and the
pillar of gold gleams underneath : the feast is before them,
served in kingly luxury ; but the eldest of the Furies is
couched at their side : she will not let them stretch a hand to
the board : she starts up with torch uplifted and thunder in
lier tones. Here are they who lived in hatred with their
bretliraii while life yet was ; who smote a parent or wove for
a client the web gt fraud ; who gained a treasure and brooded
over^it alone, and never shared it with their kin — a mighty
number these — adulterers, who were slain for their crime ;
citizens who followed the standard of treason ; §laves who
shrunk not from breaking their troth to their lords : all in
prison awaiting their doom. Ask not ichat doom is theirs,
what phase, what fate has whelmed them so deep. Others
roll the huge stone up the hill, or hang dispread from the
spokes of the wheel : there sits, as he will sit for evermore,
unhappy Theseus : and Phlegyas, from the depth of his agony,
keeps warning all, and proclaiming with a voice of terror
through the shades : " Learu hereby to be righteous, and not
to scorn the gods." This sold his country for gold, and
saddled her with a tyrant ; for gain he made and unmade
laws : this assailed his daughter's bed, and essayed a forbidden
union : all dared some monstrous crime, and enjoyed their
daring. No ; had I even a hundred tongues, and a hundred
mouths, and lungs of iron, not then could I embrace all the
types of crime, or rehearse the whole miTster-roll of vengeance.'
So spoke Apollo's aged priestess ; and then resuming : ' But
come,' she cries, ' speed on your way, and fulfil the duty you
liave essayed : quicken we our pace. I see the walls which
the Cyclopian forge raiiicd in air, and the arched gates con-

BOOK VI. 600-663. 259

fronting us, where sacred rule bids us set down our offering,'
As she spoke, they step side by side through the dusky ways,
dispatch the interval of distance, and draw near the gate,
-i^neas masters the approach, sprinkles his body with pure
spring water, and fixes the branch on the portal's front.

And now these things done at length, and the offering to
the goddess accomplished, they have reached the regions of
bliss, green pleasaunces of happy groves, and the abodes of the
blest. Here ether clothes the plains with an ampler pleni-
tude and a dazzling lustre ; and the eye beholds a sun and
stars of its own. There are some, plying their limbs on the
grassy wrestling-ground, conflicting in sport, and grappling
each other on the yellow sand : some are beating their feet
in the dance, and chanting songs. There, too, is the Thracian
priest in his flowing robe, singing the seven notes in unison
vt'ith the dancer's measure, and striking them now with his
fingers, now with the quill of ivory. Here are the old race
of Teucer, a goodly family, heroes of lofty soul, born in
earth's better days, Hus and Assaracus, and Dardanus, founder
of Troy. From afar he gazes wonderingly on their warrior
arms and their ghostly chariots. Their spears stand rooted
in the ground, and their unyoked steeds graze dispcrsedly
over the meadow. All the delight they took when alive in
chariots and armour, all their pride in grooming and feeding
their horses, goes with them underground, and animates them
there. See, too, his eye rests on others regaling on either
hand upon the grass, and singing in chorus a joyous paean, all
in a fragrant grove of bay, the source whence, welling forth
into the upper world, Eridanus flows in broad current between
his wooded banks. Here is a noble company Avho braved
wounds in fight for fatherland ; all the priests who kept their
purity Avhile life was ; all the poets whose hearts were clean,
and their songs worthy Phoebus' ear; all who by cunning

26o THE ^NEID.

inventions gave a grace to life, and whose worthy deeds maila
their fellows think of them with love : each has his brow cinc-
tured witli a snow-white fillet. Looking on the multitude as
it streamed around, the Sibyl bespoke them thus — Musseus
before all ; for he stands the centre of that vast crowd, which
looks tip to him, as with rising shoulders he towers above
them : ' Tell us, happy sjairits, and you, best of bards, whicli
is Anchises' haunt 1 which his home ? for it is to see him that
we have come hither, and won our way over the mighty river
of Erebus.' Instant the hero replied in brief : 'Here there are
no fixed abodes : our dwellings are in shadowy groves : our
settlements on the velvet slope of banks and meadows fresh
with running streams. But come, if you will, climb this hill
with me, and I will set your feet at once on a road that will
lead you.' So saying, he moves on before, and from the top
of the ridge points to broad fields of light, while they descend
from the summit.

But father Anchises, down in the depth of the green dell,
was surveying with fond observance the spirits now confined
there, but hereafter to pass into the light of day, and scan-
ning, as chance would have it, the whole multitude of his
people, even his loved posterity, their destinies, their warrior
deeds, their wavs and their works. Soon as he saw ^Eneas
advancing through the grass to meet him, he stretched out
both his hands with eager movement, tears gushed over his
cheeks, and words escaped his lips : ' And are you come at
last 1 has love fulfilled a father's hopes and surmounted the
perils of the way ? is it mine to look on your face, my son,
and listen and reply as we talked of old 1 Yes ; I was even
thinking so in my own mind. I was reckoning that it would
be, counting over the days. Nor lias my longing played mo
false. Oh, the lands and the mighty seas from which you have
come to my presence ! the dangers, my son, that have tossed

BOOK VI. 663-724. 261

£nd smitten you ! Oh, liow I have feared lest you should
come to harm in that realm of Lihya ! ' The son replied :
' Your shade it was, father, your melancholy shade, that,
coming to me oft and oft, constrained me to knock at these
doors : here, in the Tyrrhene deep my ships are riding at
anchor. Let us grasp hand in hand : let us, my father ! Oh,
withdraw not from my embrace ! ' As he spoke, the stream-
ing tears rolled down his face. Thrice, as he stood, he essayed
to fling his arms round that dear neck : thrice the phantom
escaped the hands that caught at it in vain, impalpable as the
wind, fleeting as the wings of sleep.

Meanwhile ^neas sees in the retired vale a secluded grove
with brakes and rustling woods, and the river of Lethe,
which floats along by those abodes of peace, "llound it were
flying races and tribes untold : even as- in the meadows »>',
when bees in calm summer-tide settle on flower after flower,
and stream over the milk-white lilies, the humming fills the
plain. Startled at the sudden sight, ^Eneas wonderingly
inquires what it means, what are those waters in the distance,
or who the men that are thronging the banks in crowds so
vast. To him his father Anchises : ' They are spirits to whom ^
Destiny has promised new bodies, there at the side of Lethe's
water, drinking the wave of carelessness, and the long draught
of oblivion. In truth I have long wished to tell you of
them and show them before you, to recount the long line of
my kindred, that you may rejoice with me now that Italy is
found.' ' Oh, my father ! and must we think that there are
souls that fly hence aloft into the upper air, and thus return
to tha sluggish fellowship of the body ? can their longing for
light be so mad as this ? ' 'I will tell you, my son, nor hold
you longer in doubt.' So replies Anchises, and unfolds the V^
story in order.

' Know, first, that heaven and earth, and the watery plains,

262 THE ^NEID.

and the Moon's lucid ball, and Titan's starry fires are kepf
alive by a spirit within : a mind pervading each limb stirs the
whole frame and mingles with the mighty mass. Hence
spring the races of men and beasts, and living things witli
wings, and the strange forms that Ocean carries beneath his
marble surface. These particles have a fiery glow, a heavenly
nature, struggling against the clogs of corrupting flesh, the
dullness of limbs of clay and bodies ready to die. Hence
come their fears and lusts, their joys and griefs : nor can
they discern the heavenly light, prisoned as they are in
night and blind dungeon walls. Nay, when life's last ray
has faded from them, not even then, poor wretches, are they
wholly freed from ill, freed from every plague of the flesh :
those many taints must needs be ingrained strangely in the
being, so long as they have grown with it. So they are
schooled with punishment, and pay in suff'ering for ancient
ill : some are hung up and dispread to the piercing winds :
others have the stain of wickedness washed out under the
whelming gulf, or burnt out with fire : each is chastised in
his own spirit : then we are sped through the breadth of
Elysium, while some few remain to inhabit these happy plains,
till the lapse of ages, when time's cycle is complete, has
cleansed the ingrained blot and left a pure residue of heavenly
intelligence, the flame of essential ether. All of these, when
they have rounded the circle of a thousand years. Heaven
summons to the stream of Lethe, a mighty concourse, to the
end that with memory eff"aced they may return to the vault
of the sky, and learn to wish for a new union with the body.'
Anchises ended : he draws his son and the Sibyl with
him into the midst of the assemblage, the heart of that buzzing
crowd, and mounts an eminence, whence he might see face
to face the whole of the long procession, and learn each
comer's looks.

BOOK VI. 725-787. 263

* Now then, for the glories of the Pardan race from this
time onward, the posterity reserved for you in the Italian line,
noble spirits, the ordained heirs of our proud name : of these
I will tell you, and inform you of your destiny.

' He Avhom you see there, the youth leaning on the pointless
spear, his lot is to fill the next jilace in liglit : he will be first
to rise to upper day, born from the admixture of Italian blooil,
Silvius, that great Alban name, your latest offspring, whom in
your old age at set of life your spouse Lavinia will boar you in
the woods, himself a king and the father of kings to be : from
him it is that our race shall rule over Alba the Long. Next
comes mighty Procas, the pride of the peojde of Troy, and
Capys, and Numitor, and a second bearer of your name, Silvius
yEneas, himself renowned alike for piety and for valour, if
ever he should come to the tlirone of All^a. What glorious
youths ! look what strength tliey carry in their port, whilf.
their brows are shaded by the civic oak ! These sliall uprear
for you, high on the mountains, Nomentiim, and Gabii, and
Fideuce's town, and the towers of Collatia, Pometii and Inuus'
camp, and Bola, and Cora ; names wliich shall one day bo
named : now they are mere nameless lands. Romulus, too,
tlie child of Mars, sliall come along with his grandsira
Romulus, whom a mother, bearing Ilium's name, shall pro-
duce from the blood of Assaracus. See yon the two plumes
standing on his crest, how his sire marks him even now for
the upper world by his own token of honour ? Yes, my son,
it is by his auspices that our glorious Rome shall extend
her empire to earth's end, her ambition to the skies, and
embrace seven hills with the wall of a single city, blest parent
of a warrior brood : even as the mighty Berecyntian mother
rides tower-crowned through the towns of Phrygia, proud of the
gods that have sprung from her, a hundred grand-children at
her knee, all dwellers in heaven, all lords of the lofty sky.

264 THE MNEID.

Hither now turn your two rays of vision : look at tliis family,
at Romans of your own. Here is Caesar : here the whole pro-
geny of lulus, as it will pass one day under heaven's mighty
cope. This, this is he, the man promised to you so often,
Augustus Caesar, true child of a god, who shall establish again
for Latium a golden age in that very region where Saturn
once reigned, while he stretches his sway alike beyond Gara-
mantian and Indian. See, the land is lying outside the stars,
outside the sun's yearly path, where heaven-carrier Atlas
turns round oh his shoulder the pole, studded with burning
constellations. In view of his approach, a shiver runs already
by oracular warning through Caspian realms and Maeotian
land, and there is stir and confusion at the mouths of seven-
fold Nile. Nay, even Alcides traversed no such length of
earth, though he stalked the brazen-footed deer, or tamed
Ery man thus' savage wilds, and appalled Lerna with his arrows :
no, nor he who guides his triumphal car with reins of ivy-leaf,
Bacchus, driving his tigers down from Nysa's lofty top. And
do we still hesitate to let prowess give scope to power, or does
fear prevent our setting foot on Aiisonian soil ? But who is
lie in the distance, conspicuous with a wreath of olive, with
"sacred vessels in his hand ? Ah ! I know the hoary hair and
beard of the king of Rome, who shall give the infant city the
support of law, sent from his homely Cures and a land of
poverty into a mighty empire. Next shall come one doomed
to break his country's peace, and stir up with the war-cry
of his name, Tullus, warriors rusting in ease and squadrons
that have forgotten their triumphs. AncjiS follows, a greater
boaster, even now too ready to catch the breath of a popular
cheer. Would you look too at the kings of Tarquin's house,
at the haughty spirit of Brutus th.e avenger, and the fasces
retrieved? He shall be the first to take the consul's power
and the axes of doom : the father will bring his rebel sons

BOOK VI. 78S-851. "265

to deatli, all for fair freedom's sake. Unhappy man ! let
after ages speak of that deed as they will, strong over all
Avill be patriot passion and unmeasured thirst of praise. Look,
tliere are the Diusi^ and the Decij^, and Torguatus Avith his
xinpitying axe, and Camillus the restorer of the standards.
But those whom you see tliere, dressed alike in gleamin<^
firmour — spirits at harmony now and so long as they are con-
lined in darkness^ — alas ! how vast a Avar will they Avage, each
with each, if they shall attain the light of day, what arraying
of hosts, what carnage Avill there be ! Father-in-law and son-
in-law, the one coming down from Alpine ramparts and the
stronghold of ^Monoecus : the other drawn up against him with
the forces of the east. Do not, do not, my children, make
wars like these familiar to your spirits : turn not your country's
valour against your country's vitals : and you, restrain yourself
the first : you, whose lineage is from heaven, drop the steel
from your grasp, heir of Anchises' blood. See here, a con-
(jueror who shall drive to the lofty Capitol the car of triumph
over Corinth, glorious from Achaean slaughter : here one who
f^hall lay Argos in dust, and Agamemnon's own Mycenae, ay,
and the heir of ^acus, with Achilles' martial blood in his
veins : a Roman's vengeance for his Trojan grandsircs, and
for Pallas' insulted fame. "What tongue would leave vou
unpraised, great Cato, or Cossus^ you 1 or the race of the
Grafichi, or those twin thunderbolts of war, the Scipios, Libya's
ruin, or Fabricius, princely in his poverty, or you, Serranus,
BOwing your own ploughed fields? "^^^len, ye Fabii, will
•panting praise overtake you? You are in truth our greatest,
the single saviour of our state by delay./ Others, I doubt not,
will mould the breathing brass to more flesh-like softness, and
spread over marble the look of life. Others will plead better
■at the bar, will trace with the rod the courses of heaven, and
foretell the risings of the stars. Yours, Roman, be the lesson

266 THE MNEID.

to govern tlie nations as their lord : this is your destined cul-
ture, to impose the settled rule of peace, to spare the humbled,
and to crush the proud.'

Father Anchises paused ; and, as they wondered, went on
to say : ' See how Marcellus advances in the glory of tho
general's spoils, towering with conqueror's majesty over all the
warriors near ! When the state of Rome reels under the
invader's shock, he shall stay it; his horse's hoofs shall trample
the Carthaginian and the revolted Gaul ; and he shall dedicate
the third suit of armour to Quiriuus the sire.' Hereupon
iEneas, for he saw walking at Marcellus' side a youth of goodly
presence and in gleaming armour, but with little joy on his brow
and downcast eyes : ' Who, my father, is he that thus attends
the warrior's march ? his son, or one of the glorious line of his
posterity ? Wliat a hum runs through the attendant train !
how lofty his own mien ! but the shadow of gloomy night
hovers saddening round his head.' Father Anchises began, tears
gushing forth the while : 'Alas, my son ! ask not of the heavy
grief that those of your blood must bear. Of him tlie fates
shall give but a glimpse to earth, nor suffer him to continue
longer. Yes, powers of the sky ! Rome's race would have been
in your eyes too strong, had a boon like this been its own for
ever. What groanings of the brave shall be wafted from
Mars' broad field to Mars' mighty town ! What a funeral,
father Tiber, shall thine eyes behold, as thou flowest past
that new-built sepulchre ! No child of the stock of Ilion shall
raise his Latian ancestors to such heights of hope : nevel
while time lasts shall the land of Romulus take such prida
in any that she has reared. Woe for the piety, for tha
ancient faith, for the arm unconquered in battle 1 Nevei
would foeman have met that armed presence imscathed,
marched he on foot into the field or tore with bloody spur
the flank of his foaming steed. Child of a nation's sorrow !

BOOK VI. 851-901. 267

were there hope of thy breaking the tyranny of fate, thou
shalt be Marcellus. Bring me handfuls of lilies, that 1 may
strew the grave with their dazzling hues, and crown, if only
with these gifts, my young descendant's shade, and perform
the vain service of sorrow.' Thus they wander here and
there through the whole expanse in the broad fields of shadow
and take note of all. Soon as Anchises had taken his son
from end to end, and fired his mind with the prospect of tliat
glorious history, he then tells the warrior of the battles that
lie must fight at once, and informs him of the Laurentian
tribes and Latinus' town, and how to shun or stand the shock
of every peril.

There are two gates of Sleep : the one, as story tells, of horn,
supplying a ready exit for true spirits : the other gleaming
with the polish of dazzling ivory, but through it the powers
below send false dreams to the world above. Thither
Anchises, talking thus, conducts his son and the Sibyl, and
dismisses them by the gate of ivory, i^llneas traces his way
to the fleet and returns to his comrades ; then sails along tho
shore for Caieta's haven. Tho anchor is cast from the prow ;
tb.e keels are ranged on the beach.

( 268 )

BOOK YIL

And tliou, too, in tliy death, Caieta, nurse of ^neas, hast
left to our coast the heritage of an ever-living fame ; still in
this later day thy glory hovers over thy resting-place, and a
name on Hesperia's mighty seaboard is thy monument, if that
he renoAvn. So when good ^neas had paid the last dues and
raised a funeral mound, and had waited for the calming of the
deep, he spreads sail and leaves the harbour. Nightward the
breezes blow, nor does the fair ^Moon scorn to show the way :
her rippling light makes the sea shine again. The next land
they skirt is the coast of Circe's realm, where in queenly state
the daughter of the Sun thrills her forest fastness with never-
ending song, and in her haughty mansion burns fragrant cedar
to give light by night, as she draws her shrill comb over the
delicate warp. From the shore they heard the growling noise of
lions in wrath, disdaining their bonds and roaring in midnight
hour, bristly boars and caged bears venting their rage, and
shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling: things which Circe, fell
goddess, had transformed by her magic drugs from the mien
of man to a beast's visage and a beast's hide. So, lest the
pious race of Troy should sufler such monstrous change, were
they to seek harbour there or approach the perilous shore,
Neptune filled their sails with favouring breezes, sped their
flight along, and wafted them past the seething waters.

The sea was just reddening in the dawn, and Aurora was
fehining down from heaven's height in saffron robe and rosy

BOOK VII. 1-58. 269

car. wlien all at oiice the winds were laid, and every breath
sank in sudden sleep, and the oars piill slowly against the
smooth immoving wave. In the same moment iEneas, looking
out from the sea, beholds a mighty forest. Among the trees
Tiber, that beauteous river, with his guLfy rapids and the
burden of his yellow sand, breaks into the main. Around
and above, birds of all plumes, the constant tenants of bank and
stream, were lulling the air with their notes and flying among
the woods. He bids his comrades turn aside and set their prows
landward, and enters with joy the river's shadowed be<l.

Now be with me Erato, and I will unfold who were the
kings, what the stage of circumstance, what the condition
of ancient Latium, when the stranger host first landed on
Ausonian shores, and will recall how the first blood was
drawn. Thou, goddess, thou prompt thy poet's memory.
Mine is a tale of grisly war, of battle array, and princes in
their fury rushing on carnage — of Tyrrhenian ranks, and all
Hesperia mustered in arms. Grander is the pile of events
that rises on my view, grander the task I essay. It was
the time when king Latinus, now stricken in age, was ruling
country and city in the calm of years of peace. He, as story
tells us, was the son of Faunus and a Laurentine nymph, Marica.
Faunus' father was Picus, who owes his birth to thee, great
Saturn : thou art the first founder of the line. No son, no
male progeny, so Heaven willed, had Latinus now ; just as it
was budding into youth, the branch was cut off. The solo
maintainer of the race, the sole guardian of that princely house
was a daughter, already ripe for wedlock, already arrived at
full-blown womanhood. Many were her wooers from mighty
Latium, nay, from all Ausonia. One wooer there was in
beauty passing others, Turnus, strong in the glory of sires and
grandsires : his alliance the queen with intense yearning was
seeking to compass ; but heavenly portents bar the way with

270 THE MNEID.

manifold alarm. There Avas a laurel in the middle of the
palace, in the very heart of royal privacy, sacred in its every
leaf, cherished by the awful observance of many years ; men
said that father Latiniis himself found it there when he first
laid the foundation of the tower, dedicated it to Phoebus, and
thence gave his new people the name of Laurentines. On the
top of this tree lodged a dense swarm of bees, marvellous to
tell, sailing thither with loud humming noise across the liquid
air, and twining their legs together, the cluster in a moment
was seen to hang from the leafy bough. At once spoke a
prophet : ' There is a stranger approaching : I see him now ;
along this self-same path a troop is moving liitherward, and
commanding the height of the citadel.' jNIoreover, while
Lavinia is applying the hallowed torch to the altars, as she
stands in maiden purity at her father's side, she was seen, oh,
monstrous sight ! to catch the fire with her long tresses, all her
headgear consuming in the crackling flame, her queenly hair,
her jewelled coronal all ablaze, till at last she was wrapt in
smoke and yellow glare, and scattered the fire-god's sparks the
whole palace through. There indeed was a tale of horror, a
marvel and a portent ; for, said the wise men, she will herself
be illustrious in fame and fortune, but to the nation she bodes
tremendous war. Troubled by these prodigies, the king repairs
to the oracle of Faunus, his prophetic sire, to question at the
groves beneath Albunea's shade — that queen of forests, ever
vocal with the sacred waters, ever breathing from its dark heart
deadly vaporous steam. It is here that the tribes of Italy and
all (Enotrian land seek answers in their perplexity ; hither the
l)riestess brings the enquirer's offering, lies in the still of night
on a couch of slaughtered sheep's skins, and turns to sleep,
when she sees many phantoms flitting in marvellous fashion,
and hears divers voices, and enjoys communion with the gods,
and holds converse with Acheron down in Avernus' deep.

BOOK VII. 59-122. 271

TTere also king Latiiius, in quest of an auswei", was sacrificing
duly a hundred sheep of the second year, and was lying on
their skins, a fleecy bed, -when sudden from the depth of tlie
grove an utterance was heard : ' Look not to ally your
daughter in wedlock of Latium, 0 my son ; put not faith in
marriage chambers dressed and ready ; there are sons-in-law
from a far country now on their way, men destined by mix-
ing their blood with ours to exalt our name to the spheres —
men whose lineal posterity shall one day look down and see
under their feet the whole world, far as the two oceans
wliich tlie sun surveys in his daily round, revolving beneath
them and wielded by their control.' Such was the response
of father Faunus, the counsel given at still of night : nor
does Latinus hold it shut in the prison of his own lips ; but
Fame had Qovnx with the rumour through Ausonia far and wide
from city to city, when the young chivalry of old Laomedon
anchored their ships on the river's grassy bank.

^neas and his chief captains, and lulus young and fair, lay
their limbs to rest under the boughs of a lofty tree ; there they
spread the banquet, putting cakes of flour along the sward to
support the food — such M'as Jove's high inspiration — and rear-
ing on the wheaten foundation a pile of wilding fruits. It
chanced that when the rest was eaten, the want of meat forced
them to ply their tooth on those scanty gifts of Ceres — to pro-
fane with venturous hand and mouth the sanctity of the cake's
fated circle, nor respect the square impressed on its surface.
' What ! eating our tables as well ? ' cries lulus, in his merry
vein ; that and no more. That utterance first told the hearers
that their toils were over : even as it fell from the boy's mouth
his father caught it up and broke it short, wondering in him-
self at the power of Heaven. Then anon : ' Hail to thee,
promised land of my destiny ! hail to you,' he cries, ' Troy's
faithful gods ! Yes, here is our home — this our country. It

272 THE ALNEID.

was my father — these, I remember, were the mystic words of
fate he left me : My son, whenever you are wafted to an
unknown coast, and hunger drives you, failing food, to eat
your tables, then remember my saying, tliere look for a
home of rest, set up your first roof-tree, and strengthen it
with mound and rampart. This was the hunger he meant.
This was the last strait in store for us, not the beginning
but the end of death. Come then, take heart, and with tlie
morrow's earliest light explore we what is the place, who its
dwellers, where the city of the nation, making from the haven
in different ways. Meanwhile pour libations to Jove, invoke
in prayer my sire Anchises, and set again the wine on the board.
So having said, he WTeathes his brow with the leafy spray, and
offers prayer to the genius of the spot ; to Earth the eldest
of the gods ; to the nymphs and the streams yet unknown by
name : after that, to Night and Night's new-born stars and
Ida's Jove, and Phrygia's might}'- mother, invoking each in
turn, and his own two parents in the upper and the nether
world. Just then the Almighty Father thundered thrice aloft
in a clear sky, and with his own right hand flashed in open
view from on high a cloud ablaze with rays of golden light.
At once the news spreads among the Trojan ranks tliat the
day has arrived when they are to build their promised city.
With emulous haste they celebrate the banquet, and in the
power of the august presage set on the bowls exultingly, and
wreathe the wine.

Soon as on the morrow the risen day began to illumine the
earth with the first sparkle of her torch, some here, some
there, they set about exploring the city, the frontiers, the
seaboard of the country. This, they learn, is the spring of
Numicius, this the river Tiber, this the home of the brave
Latian race. Thereupon Anchises' son commands an embassy
of a hundred, chosen from all classes alike, to go to the

BOOK VII. 1 22-1 S3. 273

monarch's royal city, all of tliem -wilh wreatiiod boughs from
Pallas' tree, to carry presents for his honoured hand, and
entreat his friendship for the Teucrians. They delay not,
but hasten at his bidding, moving -with rapid pace, while he
is marking out the city wilh a shallow trench, preparing the
ground, and surrounding this their first settlement on the
coast, camp-fashion, with battlements and earthworks. !Mean-
while the missioned band had performed their journey, and
Avere in sight of the towers and stately homes of Latium,
and passing under the city Avail. In a space before the
town, boys and youths in their prime are exercising on
horseback, and breaking in their harnessed cars among
clouds of dust, or bending the sharp-springing bow, or
hurling from the arm the quivering javelin, or vying on foot
or with the gloves, when galloping up, a messenger announces,
in the aged monarch's ears, that mighty men have arrived in
strange attire. The king bids him summon them into tho
presence-hall, and takes his seat in the midst on his ancestral
throne. It was a reverend pile, of vast proportions, raised
high upon a hundred pillars, on the city's topmost ground, the
palace of Picus the Laurentine, clothed in the terror of waving
woods and hereditary awe. Here it was held to be of auspi-
cious presage that kings should first take in hand the sceptre,
and lift up the fasces : this temple Avas their senate-house,
the hall for their sacrificial feasts : here, Avhen a ram Avas slain,
the seniors were Avont to banquet doAvn long lines of tables.
Here, too, in succession Avere the effigies of past generations,
carved from ancient cedar — Italus and father Sabinus, planter
of the vine, preserving in that mimic form his curved hook,
and hoary Saturn, and the image of two-faced Janus, all
standing in the vestibule, and other kings from the earliest
days, and heroes Avho had sustained the war-god's wounds

in fighting for their country. Moreover, there Avas hanging

8

274 THE .ENEID.

on the sacreJ doors abundance of armour, captive cliariots,
crooked axe-heads, helmet-crests, ponderous gates, javelins,
and shields, and beaks torn from vessels. There, as in life,
was sitting, decked with Quirinal staff and robe of scanty
border, in his left hand the sacred shield, Picus, tamer of the
steed, he Avhom, in her bridal jealousy, Circe, by a stroke of
her golden rod and the witchery of her drugs, transformed to
a bird, and scattered spots over his wings. Such was the
temple where Latinus, seated on his ancestral throne, sum-
moned the Teucrians to his presence Avithin, and on their
entry with placid mien bespoke them thus : —

'Tell me, sons of Dardanus — for we know your city and
your race, and your coming over the deep has reached our
ears — what is your errand 1 what cause or what necessity has
wafted your ships to our Ausonian coast through those many
leagues of blue water 1 Be it from ignorance of the way or
stress of weather, or any of the thousand chances that happen
to seamen on the main, that you have passed between our
river's banks, and are resting in the haven, shrink not from
our welcome, but know in the Latian race the true people
of Saturn, kept in righteousness by no bjThd'of law, but by
our own instinct and the rule of our parent-god. And now I
remember, though years have dulled the freshness of the tale,
that aged Auruncans used to tell how in this land Dardanus
saw the light, and hence he won his way to the towns of
Phrygian Ida and Thracian Samos, which men now call
Samothrace. Ay, it was from the house of Tuscan Corythus
lie went, and now the golden palace of starry heaven seats
him on a throne, and among the altars of the gods makes
room for him.'

He ended ; and Ilioneus followed thus : ' Great king, illus-
trious son of Faunus, no stress of gloomy storm has made us
the sport of the waves and driven us on your coast, no sky

BOOK VII. 183-245. 275

or land misread has beguiled us of our track : of set purpose,
with full intent, we are arrived one and all at your city, driven
from a realm once the greatest which the sun surveyed in his
course from end to end of heaven. From Jove is the origin
of our race ; in Jove, as their ancestor, the sons of Dardanus
glory ; our monarch himself, sprung of Jove's own pure blood,
/Eneas of Troy, has sent us to your doors. TIow dire a hurri-
cane, launched from fell Mycenge, swept over Ida's plains^
how the two worlds of Europe and Asia, fate driving each,
met and crashed together — has reached the ears of the man,
if such there be, whom earth's last corner withdraws from tho
wash of ocean, and his too who is parted from his fellows by
the zone that lies midmost among the four, the zone of the
tyrannous sun. From the jaws of that deluge flying over
many and mighty Avaters, we ask of you for our country's
gods a narrow resting-place — the harmless privilege of the
coast, and the common liberty of water and air. We shall
be no disgrace to your kingdom, nor light shall be the fame
that men will blaze of you, nor shall gratitude for your great
bounty grow old, nor shall Ausonia mourn the day when she
welcomed Troy--to her heart. I swear by Eneas' star, by his
strong right hand, known as such by all who have proved it
in friendship or in war, many have been the peoples, many
the nations — nay, scorn us not for that Ave accost you with
fillets of suppliance and words of prayer — who have sued for
our company and Avished to make us one Avith them. But
the oracles of heaven, speaking as they only can, have driven
us to search out your realms. Hence sprang Dardanus ; hither
Apollo bids us return, Avith the instance of high command,
even to Tuscan Tiber and the sacred Avaters of Numicius'
spring. Moreover here are presents from -^neas, the scanty
offerings of past prosperity, relics snatched from the flames of
Troy. From this gold his father, Anchises, poured libations

275 THE JENEID.

at the altar ; tliis was Priam's royal accoutrement, when ha
gave laws in kingly fashion to. the assembled people ; this
sceptre, this sacred diadem, these robes, the work of Trojan
dames. '

Thus, as Ilioneus is speaking, Latinus holds his counten-
ance in set downcast gaze, and sits rooted to his throne, turn-
ing his eyes in intense thought. Xor does the broidered
purple stir his princely mind ; no, nor the sceptre of Priam,
so deeply as he ponders on the wedlock, the bridal bed of
liis daughter, revolving in his breast old Faunus' oracle.
This must be that predicted son-indaw, arrived from a foreign
home, destined to reign in joint sovereignty with himself ;
tlience must be born that glorious progeny, whose prowess
is to master the world. At length he breaks out in dad
tones : ' May the gods prosper our intent and ratify their
own presage ! Yes, Trojan, you shall have your prayer, nor
do I reject your presents. Long as Latinus shall reign, you
shall not lack the bounty of a fruitful soil, nor miss the
wealth of Troy. Let but /Eneas himself, if his desire of
us is so great, if he covets the tie of hospitality and the
stjde of alliance, come to our j)resence, nor shrink from eyes
that will view him kindly. Peace Avill be incomplete till
I have touched your monarch's hand. And now do you take
back to your king this my message : I have a daughter,
whose marriage with a husband of our nation is forbidden
by voices from my father's shrine, by countless prodigies
from heaven ; sons-in-law are to arrive from foreign climes
— such, they say, is Fate's M'ill for Latium — who by mixing
their blood with ours are to exalt our name to the spheres.
That he is this chosen one of destiny is my belief, and, if my
mind reads the future true, my award.' "With these words
the old king makes choice of horses from the multitude ha
possessed. Three hundred there were, sleek-coated, standing

BOOK VII. 245-305. 277

in tlieir lofty stalls. At once lie Lids liis servants bring for
each of the Teucrians a fleet-foot Avith housings of embroidered
purple ; golden poitrels hang down to the chest of each ;
there is gold on their coverings; yellow gold under their
champing teeth. For the absent iEneas he orders a car and
two coursers of ethereal seed, snorting fire from their nostrils,
sprung of that brood which artful Circe raised up fraudfully
to her father the Sun, a spurious race, from the womb of a
mortal dam. Thus graced with gifts and kind speeches, the
children of ^neas journey homeward on their tall steeds, and
carry tidings of peace.

Meanwhile, there was Jove's relentless spouse travelling
back from her own Argos, city of Inachus, and already
launched on mid air; looking from the sky over Sicilian
Pachynus, she beheld in distant prospect iEneas in his hour
of joy and the Dardan fleet. Already she sees him building
his home ; already he has made the soil his friend, and has
parted from his ships. Pierced with bitter grief, she stayed
her course, and then, shaking her head, pours from her heart
words like these : ' Ah, that hated stock ! those destinies of
rhrygia that hold my destinies in check ! Did the dead
really fall on the plains of Sigeum ? were the captives cap-
tured in truth? did the flames of Troy burn the men of
Troy ? Through the heart of the battle, through the heart of
the fire they have found a way. Ay, belike, my power at last
lies gasping and spent ; my hatred is slaked and I am at
peace. I, Avho followed them with a foe's zeal over the water
even when tossed from their country's arms, and met the exiles
front to front on every sea ! Spent on these Teucrians is all
that sky and surge can do. Have Syrtes, has Scylla, has
Charybdis' yawning gulf stood me aught in stead? They
liave "ained the channel of Tiber, the haven of their wishes,
and mav laucrh at ocean and at me. Mars had strength to

k

278 THE .■ENEID.

destroy the Lapitlian nation, huge as tliey were ; the father of
the gods gave up the honoured land of Calydon to Diana's ven-
geance ; and what had Lapithans or Calydon done to earn such
penal ruin ? Eut I, Jove's great consort, who have stooped,
miserably stooped, to leave nothing untried, who have assumed
every form by turns, am vanquished by ^Eneas. "Well, if my
power be not august enough, I would not shrink from suing
for other aid, be it found where it may ; if I cannot prevail
above, I will stir up the fiends of the deep. It will not be
mine to keep him from the crown of Latium — be it so ; fixed
for him by fate unalterably is his bride Lavinia ; but delays
and impediments may Avell be where the matter is so great ;
but to cut off the subjects of our two monarchs — this may be
done. So let father and son-in-law embrace, at the cost of
their people's lives. The blood of Trojan and Rutulian shall
be your dower, fair lady : Bellona is Avaiting to lead you to
your chamber. 'Nov is Hecuba the only mother that has
teemed with a fire-brand and given birth to a nuptial blaze ;
Venus sees the tale repeated in her own offspring — a second
Paris — a funeral torch rekindled for reviving Troy.'

Having vented words like these, she flew down in black
rage to the earth ; and now she summons AUecto the baleful
from the dwelling of the dread goddesses and the darkness of
the pit — Allecto, whom bitter wars, and strifes, and stratagems,
and injurious crimes cheer like a cordial. Hateful even to
riuto her sire is the fiend, hateful to her Tartarean sisters,
so many the forms she puts on, so terrible the mien of cacli,
so countless the vipers that burgeon blackly from her head.
Her, thus dreadful, Juno lashes to fiercer fury, speaking on
this wise : * Grant me, maiden daughter of Night, a boon all
my own — thine undivided aid, that my praise and renown
may not be dashed from their pedestal — that the children of
iT^ncas may not be able to ensnare Latinus in a bridal alliance

BOOK VII. 305-365. 279

or beset tlie Italian frontier, Tliou canst make brothers of
one soul take arms and fight ; canst make peaceful homes
dens of strife ; thou canst gain entrance for the scourge and
the funeral torch : thou hast a thousand names, a thousand
means of ill. Stir up that prolific bosom, snap the formed
bands of peace, scatter the incentives of war, let the nation
in the same moment desire, demand, and seize the sworcL'

So then Allecto, empoisoned with Gorgon venom, first repairs
to Latium and the lofty halls of the Laurentine monarch, and
sits down before the hushed chamber of queen Amata, who,
as she mused on the arrival of the Trojans and Turnus' bridal
hopes, was glowing and seething with all a woman's passion,
a woman's spleen. Snatching a snake from her dark venomed
locks, she hurls it at her, and lodges it in the bosom close to
the very heart, that, maddened by the pest, she may drive
the whole house wild. In glides the reptile unfelt, winding
between the robe and the marble breast, and beguiles her into
frenzy, breathing into her lungs its viperous breath; the linked
gold round her neck turns to the monstrous serpent ; so does
the festoon of her long fillet ; it twines her hair, it slides
smoothly from limb to limb. And while the first access of
contagion, stealing in with clammy poison, is pervading her
senses and threading her bones with flame," ere yet the soul
has caught fire through the whole compass of the bosom, she
speaks with gentle plaint, as mothers Avont, shedding many
tears over her child and the Phrygian alliance : ' And are
fugitives from Troy to take Lavinia in marriage, good father ?
have you. no compassion for your daughter and yourself 1
none for her mother, whom with the first fair gale the faith-
less pirate will leave and make for the deep, currying off his
maiden prey? Ay, things were not so when the Phrygian
shepherd stole into Lacedsemon, and bore away Leda's Helen
to Troy town. "Where is your pledged faith ? where your old

28c» THE MNEID.

tendeiiiess for your own blood, and your hand plighted so oft
to your kinsman Turnus 1 If Latian folk must liave a son-in-
law fetched from a foreign stock, and this is unalterably fixed,
and your father Faunus' command sits heavy on your soul, I
hold that every nation is foreign whose independence severs it
from our rule, and that such is Heaven's intent. Turnus, too,
if you go back to the first foundation of his house, has Inachus
and Acrisius for his ancestors, and the heart of Mycenae for
his home.' But when, having tried in vain what these words
can do, she sees Latinus obstinately bent, and meantime the
serpent's fiendish mischief has sunk deep into her vitals, and
is thrilling every vein, then at last the miserable queen,
unsexed by the portentous enormitj^ raves in ungoverned frenzy
through the city's length and breadth ; as oft you may see a
top spinning under the lash, which boys are flogging round
and round in a great ring in an empty courtyard, Avith every
thought on their game : driven by the whip it keeps mak-
ing circle after circle : the beardless faces hang over it in
puzzled wonder, marvelling how the box-wood can fly, as
though the blows made it a living thing. With motion as
furious she courses through crowded streets and unruly peoples.
Xay, more than this, she feigns the inspiration of Bacchus,
nerving herself t'o more atrocious deeds, and climbing new
heights of madness — flies into the woods, and hides her
daughter among the leafy hills, all to snatch from the Teucrians
tlio bridal bed and delay the kindling of Hymen's torch.
' Evoe Bacchus ! ' is her cry ; ' thou, and none but thou art
lit mate for a maid like this. See ! for thee she takes up the
sacred wand, for thee she leads the dance, for thee she grows
her dedicated hair.' Fame flies abroad; other mothers are
instinct with frenzy, and all have the same mad passion
driving them to seek a new home. They have left their
houses, and are spreading hair and shoulders to the wind ;

LOOK VII. 365-428. 281-

whilc some are filling the sky with quivering shrieks, clad in
fawn-skins, and carrying vine-branch spears. There in the
middle is the queen all aglow, lifting high a blazing pine, and
singing the bridal song of Turnus and her daughter, her eye
red and glaring ; and sudden she shouts like a savage : ' Ho !
mothers of Latium all, where'er ye be, if ye have human
hearts and kindness left there for poor Amata, if ye are stung
to think of a mother's rights, off with the fillets from your
hair, and join the orgio Avith me.' Such is the queen, driven
nniong the woods, among the wild beasts' Jairs far and wide,
by Bacchus' goad in Allecto's hand.

And now, judging that she had barbed enough the young
fangs of frenzy, upheaving from their bases the royal purpose
and the royal house, the grim goddess next soars in air on her
murky wings on to the walls of the bold Rutulian, the city
which they say Danae built for her Argive settlers, landing
there under stress of wind. Ardoa was the name which past
generations gave the place, and Ardea still keeps her augrist
title ; but her star is set. Here, in his lofty palace, Turnus
at deep of night was in the midst of his sleep. Allecto puts
off her hideous features and her fiendish shape, transforms
herself to an old woman's countenance and furrows her loathly
brow with wrinkles, assumes hoary locks and woollen fillet,
lastly twines them with an olive spray, and so becomes Calybe,
the aged priestess of Juno's temple ; and presents herself to
the young warrior's eyes -with such words as these : ' And can
Turnus calmly see all his toils poured out in vain, and the
crown that is his own transferred to settlers from Dardania 1
See, the king is refusing you your bride and your blood-bought
dowry, and search is being made for a foreign heir to fill the
throne. Go on now, confront ungracious perils, and earn
derision ; go, mow down the Tuscan ranks, and spread over
Latium the shield of peace. These very words Saturn's

2^2 THE .ENEID.

almighty Jaugliter with her own lips bade me say lo you
when you should be slumbering in the still of night. Kise,
then, bid your soldiery arm and move from city to camp, set
fire to the Phrygian chiefs who have anchored in our fair
river and to their painted ships. The dread voice of heaven
speaks by me. Nay, let king Latinus, unless he consent to
give you your bride and respect his promise, feel at last and
find what it is to have Turnus for a foe.'

Laughing scornfully at the old seer, the youth thus spoke
in reply : ' The news that a fleet has arrived in the Tiber has
not, as you imagine, escaped my ear. Conjure me no such
mighty terrors, nor think that queen Juno has forgotten me.
No, it is you, good mother, whom mouldering dotage, drained
dry of truth, is vexing to no end, mocking your prophetic soul
with false alarms in an atmosphere of royal armaments. You
are in your place watching over statues and temples ; but war
and peace must be wielded by men, whose work M'ar is.'

At these words Allecto kindled into wrath. Even in the
act of speaking a shudder seized the youth's frame and hia
eyes grew stiff' and stony, so fierce the hissing of the Fury's
thousand snakes, so monstrous the features that rose on his
view. Instant with a roll of her fiery orbs she thrust him
back as he faltered and tried to speak further; on either
brow she upreared a serpent lock, and cracked her whip, and
with infuriate lips followed thus : ' Here is the mouldering
mother, whom dotage, drained dry of truth, is mocking with
false alarms in an atmosphere of royal armaments. Turn
your eyes hither ; I am come from the dwelling of the Dread
Sisters : war and death are wielded by this hand.'

Saying thus, she hurled a torch full at the youth, and
lodged in his breast the pine-wood with its lurid smoke and
glare. The bonds of sleep are broken by the giant terror,
and a burst of sweat all over bathes the whole man, bone and

BOOK VII. 428-489. 283

limb. *My sword!' he screams in frenzy; for liis sword lie
searclies pillow and palace : the fever of the steel, the guilty
madness of bloodshed rage within hira, and angry pride tops
all : even as when loud-crackling a fire of sticks is heaped
round the sides of a waving caldron, and the heat makes the
water start ; there within is the flood, steaming and storming,
and bubbling high in froth, till at last the wave cannot con-
tain itself, and the black vapour flies up into the air. So
then, trampling on treaties, he gives the word to the chiefs of
his soldiery for a march upon king Latinus, and bids arms be
got ready. Italy must be protected, the foe must be driven
from the frontier ; he and his men will be enough for botii,
Teucrians and Latians. So he says and appeals to Heaven :
and the Rutulians with emulous zeal encourage each other to
the fight. This one is fired by his leader's peerless beauty
and youth ; this by the kings in his pedigree ; this by the
glorious deeds of his hand.

While Turnus is filling the Rutulians with the spirit of
daring, Allecto is plotting her infernal wings in motion against
the Teucrians. A new device working in her mind, she fixed
her eye on the spot where on the winding coast lulus was
hunting game with the snare and the course. Hereon the
maiden of Cocytus suddenly presents to the hounds a madden-
ing lure, and touches their nostrils with the scent they know
so well, making them chase a stag in full cry ; Avhich was the
first origin of the trouble, and put the spark of war to the
spirit of the countryside. There was a stag of beauteous form
and lofty horns, taken by the sons of Tyrrheus from its mother's
breast, and brought up by them and their father Tyrrheus,
who had the control of the royal herds and the charge of the
whole range of lawn. Trained to obey, it was the chief care
of their sister Silvia ; she would deck and wreathe its horns
with delicate festoons, and comb its rough coat, and wash it in

284 THE JENEID.

the clear stream. Grown tame to the hand, and accustomed to
its master's table, it would run free in the forest and take itself
Lack home to the well-known door, however late the night.
!N"ow, in one of its wanderings the maddened hounds of lulus
started it in the hunt, as it happened to he floating down the
stream or allaying its heat on the verdant bank. Ascanius
himself, fired with a proud ambition, bent his bow and
levelled a shaft : nor did his hand err for want of heavenly
aid : the reed sped with a loud hurtling sound and pierced
the belly and the flank. The wounded creature took refuge
under the roof it knew, and moaning crept into its stall, and
bleeding all over filled, like a human suppliant, the house with
its piteous plaints. Sister Silvia first, smiting on her arms
with her flat hands, calls for help and summons the rough
country folk. They — for the fell fiend is lurking in the silence
of the forest — are at her side ere she looks for them, armed
one with a seared brand, one with a heavy knotted stock :
Avhat each first finds as he gropes about, anger makes do
weapon's service. Tyrrheus musters the company, just as the
news found him, splitting an oak in four with convergent
wedges, catching up an axe and breathing savage rage. But
the cruel goddess, seizing from her watch-tower the moment of
mischief, makes for the stall's lofty roof, and from its summit
.'-brills forth the shepherd's clarion, i)itching high on the
wreathen horn her Tartarean note ; at the sound the whole
line of forest was convulsed, and the woods echoed to their
depths : it was heard far off by Trivia's lake, heard by river
Nar with his whitening sulphurous waters, and by the springs
of the Veline : and terror-stricken mothers clasped their chil-
dren to their breasts.

At once running to the sound with which the dread clarion
gave the signal, the untamed rustics snatch up their Aveapons
and gather from all sides ; while the forces of Troj', on their

BOOK VII. 490-553. 2S5

part, pov.r tlirougli the camji's open gates their succour for
Ascanius. It is no longer a woodman's quarrel waged with
heavy clubs or seared stakes ; they try the issue with two-
'edcjed steel ; a dark harvest of drawn swords bristles over the
field; the brass shines responsive to the sun's challenge, and
flings its radiance skyward ; as when the wave has begun to
whiten under the rising wind, the ocean gradually upheaves
itself, and raises its billows higher and higher, till at last,
from its lowest depths, it mounts up to heaven. See ! as the
arrow whizzes, a young warrior in the first rank, once Tyrrheus'
eldest born, Almo, is laid low in death ; for the wound has
lodged in his throat, and has cut off, with the rush of blood,
the passage of the liquid voice and the vital breath. Round
him lie many gallant frames, and among them old Gakesus,
while throwing himself between the armies and pleading for
peace ; none so just as he, none so wealthy before to-day in
Ausonian land ; five flocks of sheep had he, five herds of
oxen went to and fro from his stalls, and his land was furrowed
by a hundred ploughs.

While thus on the plains the impartial war-god deals out
fortune, the goddess, having achieved her promise, soon as she
had inaugurated the war with blood, and brought the battle to
its first murderous shock, flies from Hcsperia, and rounding
the cope of heaven, addresses Juno in the haughty tones of
triumph : ' See here the work of discord complete in the horrors
of Avar ! Kow bid them come together in friendship and strike
truce. Thou hast seen that I can sprinkle the Trojans with
Ausonian blood ; let me but be assured of thy wish, I will give
thee a further boon : I will sow rumours and bring the neigh-
bouring cities into the war, and inflame their souls with mad
martial passion to crowd from all sides with succour ; I ■will
scatter arms broadcast' Juno returns: * There is panic and
treachery enough ; the seeds of war are sown deep ; men are

286 THE ,^NEID.

figliting hand toliand; the weapons which clianco fir.st supplied
are being seasoned with new-spilt blood. Such be the alliance,
such the nuptial rites solemnised by Venus' virtuous son
and good king Latinus. For thee to walk the upper air
with larger freedom would displease the great Father, th(}
monarch of high Olympus. Give place ; should any chance
emerge in the struggle, myself will deal with it.' So spoke
Saturn's daughter : the Fury lifts her wings that hurtle with
serpent plumage, and seeks her home in Cocytus, leaving
the altitudes above. There is a place in the bosom of
Italy, under the shadow of lofty hills, known to fame and
celebrated in far-off lands, the vale of Amsanctus ; pent between
two woody slopes, dark with dense foliage, while at the bottom
.1 broken torrent makes a roaring among the rocks along its

o o o

winding bed. Here men show an awful cavern, the very
gorge of the fell infernal god, and a deep gulf through which
Acheron breaks open its baleful mouth : there dived the Fury,
and relieved of her loathed presence earth and heaven.

Meanwhile, for her part, Saturn's ro3'al daughter gives
the last touch that brings down the war. From the battle-
field there pours into the city the whole company of shejD-
herds, with their slain in their arms, young Almo and
Galaesus' disfigured countenance, calling on the gods and
adjuring Latinus. Turnus is on the spot, and, in the fury
and fire of the blood-cry, sounds again and again the note
of terror : ' The Teucrians are invited to reign in Latium ;
a Phrygian shoot is to be grafted on the royal tree ; th(!
palace-gate is closed on himself.' IMoreover, the kinsmen of
the matrons, who in Bacchic madness are footing the pathless
woods — for Amata's name weighs not lightly — muster from
all sides, and strain the throat of Mars to hoarseness. All at
once, defying omens and oracles, under the spell of a cursed
deity, they clamour for an atrocious war. With emulous zeal

BOOK VII. 553-614. 2S7

they s-wann round Latiuus' palace ; he, like a rock in the sea,
stands unshaken ; like a rock in the sea before the rush and
crash of waters, which, amid thousands of barking waves, is
fixed by its own weight; the crags and the spray-foamed
stones roar about it in vain, and the lashed seaweed falls idly
from its side. But when he finds no poAver given him to
counterwork the secret agency, and all is moving at relentless
Juno's beck, then Avith many an appeal to the gods and the
soulless skies, 'Alas!' exclaims the good sire, ' shattered are
we by destiny and whirled before the storm ! On you will
come the reckoning, and your impious blood will pay it, my
wretched children ! You, Turnus, you will be met by your
crime and its fearful vengeance, in a day when it will be too
late^pray to Heaven. For me, my rest is assured; my ship
is just dropping into port; it is but of a happy departure that
I am robbed.' No more he spoke, but slmt himself in an
inner chamber, and let the reins of empire go.

A custom there was in the Hesperian days of Latium,
observed as sacred in succession by the Alban cities, and
now honoured by the observance of Rome, the greatest
power on earth, Avhen men first stir up the war-god to
battle, whether their purpose be to carry piteous war among
the Getse, the Hyrcanians, or the Arabs, or to march as far
as India, track the Morning-star to its home, and wrest the
standards from the grasp of Parthia. There are two folding-
gates of War — such the title they bear — clothed with religious
aAve and with the terrors of Mars the cruel : they are closed
by a hundred brazen bars and by the everlasting strength
of iron, and Janus never quits his guard on the threshold.
When the fathers finally conclude for battle, the consul him-
self, in the pride of Quirinus' striped robe and the Gabine
cincture, unbars the grating portals, and with his own voico
invokes battle ; the rest of the warriors take up the cry, and

288 THE JENEID.

brazen horns blare out in unison their hoarse assent. Tlius it
was that then, too, Latinus was urged to declare war against
the family of ^neas and to unclose the grim gates. The good
old king recoiled from the touch, turned with averted eyes
from the service he loathed, and shrouded himself in impene-
trable gloom. Then darted down from the sky the queen of
heaven, smote with her own royal hand the unwilling portals,
and from their bursten fastenings, as Saturn's daughter might,
flung back the valves on their hinges. All Ausonia, sluggish
and moveless till then, blazes into fury ; some commence their
footmarch over the plain, some from the height of their steeds
storm through the dust ; one and all cry out for arms. Some
are rubbing their shields smooth and their javelins bright with
unctuous lard, and putting their axes under the grindstone ;
there is joy in the carrying of the standard, joy in the hearing
of the trumpet's sound. And now there are five great cities
with anvils everywhere set up, giving a new edge to their
weapons : Atina the mighty and Tiber the proud, Ardea, and
they of Crustumium, and tower-crowned Antemnoe. Helmets
are hollowed to guard the head ; willows are twisted into
wicker frames for shields ; others are beating out brass into
breastplates, or stretching ductile silver into polished greaves.
All the pride of sickle and share, all the passion for the plough
are swallowed up in this ; they bring out their fathers' swords,
and smelt them anew in the furnace. Here, in wild haste, is
one snatching his helm from the chamber-wall ; there is another
bringing his snorting steeds to the yoke, clothing himself with
shield and corslet of three-piled gold, and girding to his side
his trusty sword. ^

' The remaining lines of this Book are not translated. — [Ed.]

( 2S9 )

BOOK VIIL

So3N as Turnus set liigli on Laurentum's tower the ensign of
war, and tlie horns clanged forth their luirsli music, soon as
he shook the reins in tlie month of his fiery steeds, and clashed
his armour, at once came a stirring of men's souls : all Latiuni
conspires in tumultuous rising, and the warrior hands arc
inflamed to madness. The generals, Messapus and Ufens and
Mezentius, scorner of the gods, assume the lead, mustering
succour from all sides and unpeopling the fields of their tillers
far and wide. Venulus too is sent to the town of mighty
Dioraede to entreat help, and set forth that the Teucrians are
planting foot in Latium; that /Eneas is arrived hy sea and
intruding his vanquished home-gods, and announcing himself
as the Latians' destined king ; that many tribes are flocking
to the standard of the Dardan chief, and the contagion of his
name is spreading over Latium's length and breadth. What
is to be the end of such a beginning, what, should fortune
favour hira, he promises to himself as the issue of the battle,
Diomede will know better than king Xjirnus or king Latinus.
So go things in Latium. The chief of Laomedon's line seea
it all, and is tossed on a sea of cares ; now on this point, now
on that, he throws in a moment the forces of his mind, hurrvincr
it into all quarters and sweeping the whole range of thought :
as in water a flickering beam on a brazen vat, darted back by
the sun or the bright moon's image, flits far and wide over the
whole place, now at last mounting to the sky and striking the

T

290 THE .ENEID.

ceiling of the roof. Night came, and tired life the earth over,
bird and beast alike, were lapped deep in slumber, when -^neas,
good king, troubled at heart by the anxious war, stretched
himself on the bank under heaven's chilly cope, and let repose
at last steal over his frame. Before him appeared in person
the god of the place, old Tiber, of the pleasant stream, rising
among the poplar foliage : a gray mantle of transparent linen
floated about him, and his hair was shaded with bushy reeds :
and thus he began to address the chief and relieve his care :
' 0 offspring of heaven's stock, who are bringing back to us
safe from the foe the city of Troy, and preserving Pergamus
in enduring life, yourself looked for long on the Laurentian
soil and in the fields of Latium, here is your abiding place of
rest, here, distrust it not, permanence for your home-gods :
let not war's threatenings make you afraid, the swellings of
the anger of heaven have all given way. Even now, that you
may not think this the idle coinage of sleep, under the oaks
on the bank you shall find an enormous swine lying with a
litter of thirty head just born, white herself throughout her
lazy length, her children round her breasts as white as she : a
sign that when thirty years have made their circuit, Ascauius
shall found that city known by the illustrious name of the
White. Of no doubtful issue are these words of mine. Now
for the way in which you may triumphantly unravel the
present knot, grant me your attention, and I will show you
in brief. On this my coast. Arcadians, a race sprung from
Pallas, who have followed king Evander and his banner, have
chosen themselves a site and built a city on the hills, called
from the name of their ancestor Pallas, Pallanteum. These
are for ever engaged in war with the Latian nation : let them
join your camp as allies, and make league with them. I
myself will lead you between the banks, straight along my
stream, that as you journey up your oars may surmount Iha

BOOK Vlll. 25-9a 291

adverse current. Up then, godJess-born, and ere the stars
have well set, offer prayer in due course to Juno, and over-
bear with suppliant vows her anger and her menace. Once
triumphant, you shall pay your worship to me. I am he
whom you see here with brimming flood grazing the banks
and threading rich cultured lands, sea-green Tiber, the river
whom gods love best. Hero rises my royal palace, the crown
of lofty cities.' The river-god said, and plunged into his
deep pool, down to the bottom ; night and sleep at once fled
from ^neas. He rises, and with his eyes fixed on the sun's
rays just dawning on the sky, he lifts up in due form water
from the river in the hollow of his hands, and pours forth
to heaven words like these : ' Nymphs, Laurentian nymphs,
whence rivers derive their birth, and thou, father Tiber, witli
thy hallowed flood, take ^neas to your bosom, and at last
relieve him from perils. Whatever the spring of the pool
where thou dwellest in thy pity for our troubles, whatever
the soil whence thy goodly stream arises, ever shalt thou be
honoured by me with sacrifice, ever with offerings, the river
with the crescent horn, the monarch of Hesperian waters.
Be but thou present, and confirm by thy deed thy heavenly
tokens.' So saying, he chooses two biremes from the fleet
and fits them with rowers, while he gives his comrades arms
to wear.

"When lo, a sudden portent marvellous to view — stretched
in milk-white length along the sward, herself of one hue witli
her white litter, conspicuous on the verdant bank is seen a
sow, whom pious ^neas to thee, even to thee, mightiest Juno,
immolates in sacrifice, and sets her with all her brood before the
altar. That whole night long Tiber smoothed his brimming
stream, and so stood with hushed waves, half recoiling, as to lay
down a watery floor as of some gentle lake or peaceful pool, that
the oar might have nought to struggle with. So they begin their

292 THE JENEID.

voyage auJ speed with auspicious cheers. Smooth along the
surface floats tlie anointed pine : marvelling stand the waters,
marvelling the unwonted wood, to see the warriors' shields
gleaming far along the stream, and the painted vessels gliding
between the banks. The rowers give no rest to night or day,
as they surmount the long meanders, sweep under the fringe
of diverse trees, and cut through the woods that look green in
tlie still expanse. The sun had climbed in full blaze the cen-
tral cope of heaven, when from afar they see walls, and a
citadel, and the roofs of straggling habitations — the place
Avhich the power of Rome has now made to mate the skies :
then it was but Evander's poor domain. At once they turn
their prows to land and approach the town.

It happened that on that day the Arcadian monarch was
performing a yearly sacrifice to Amphitryon's mighty child and
the heavenly brotherhood in a grove before the city. With
him his son Pallas, with him all the prime of his warriors and
his unambitious senate were offering incense, and the new-
shed blood was steaming warm on the altar. Soon as they
saw tall ships gliding toward them through the shadowy trees,
and plying the oar in silence, alarmed by the sudden appari-
tion, each and all start up from the sacrificial board. Pallas,
bolder than the rest, bids them not break the sacred observ-
ance, and snatching up a weapon flies himself to meet the
strangers, and from a height at distance, ' Warriors,' he cries,
' what cause has led you to venture on a path you know not ?
whither are you bound ? what is your nation, your family 1 is
it peace you bring us or war 1 ' Then father ^neas bespeaks
him thus from the lofty stern, stretching forth in his hand
a branch of peaceful olive : ' These are Trojans you see.
These weapons mean hostility to the Latins, who have driven
us from their land by a tyrannous war. Our errand is to
Evander. Take back our message, and say that chosen chiefs

BOOK VIII. 90-151. 293

of Dardany are at his gate, praying for au armed alliance.'
Tliat mighty name struck awe into Pallas. ' Disembark,' he
cries, ' whoever you be, and speak to my sire in person, and come
beneath our home-gods' hospitable shelter,' and gave his hand
in welcome, and clung to the hand he clasped. They advance
under the shade of the grove, and leave the river behind.

Then ^neas addresses the king with friendly courtesy :
' Best of the sons of Greece, to whom it has pleased Fortune
that I should make my prayer and stretch out boughs wreathed
with fillets, I felt no fear for that you were a Danaan leader,
an Arcadian, allied by lineage with the two sons of Atreus : I
felt that my own worth, and the gods' hallowed oracles, and
the old connection of our ancestry, and your world-wide fame,
had linked me to you, and brought me before you at once by
destiny and of my own will Dardanus, first father and
founder of the town of Ilion, born, as Greeks tell, of Electra,
daughter of Atlas, came among Teucer's people : Electra's
father was mighty Atlas, he that bears up on his shoulders the
spheres of heaven. Your progenitor is ^[ercury, whom beau-
teous Maia conceived and brought forth on CvHene's chill
summit; but Maia, if tradition be credited, is the child of Atlas,
the same Atlas who lifts up the stars of the firmament. Thus
our two races part off from one and the same stock. Trusting
to this, I sent no embassy, nor contrived the first approaches
to you by rule and method : in myself, in my own person, I
have made the experiment, and come to your gate as a sui>
pliant. The same tribe which persecutes you, the Daunians,
is now persecuting us Avith cruel Avar : should they drive us
away, they foresee nought to hinder their subduing all Hesperia
utterly to their yoke, and mastering either sea, that washes it
above or below. Take our friendship and give us yours. On
our side are hearts valiant in war, and a gallant youth approved
by adventure.'

294 THE ALNEID.

iEneas ended. Long ere this the other's eye was scannhig
Mie speaker's countenance and eyes, and surveying his whole
frame. Then he returns in brief : ' With what joy, bravest
of tlie Teucrians, do I welcome and. acknowledge ye ! liow
well I call to mind the words, the voice, the look of your sire,
the great Anchises ! For I remember how Priam, son of
Laomedon, journeying to Salamis, to see the kingdom of his
sister Hesione, went on to visit the chill frontier of Arcadia.
In those days the first bloom of youth was clothing my cheeks.
1 admired the Teucrian leaders, I admired Laomedon's royal
son ; but Anchises' port was nobler than all. My mind
kindled with a youth's ardour to accost one so great, and
exchange the grasp of the hand. I made my approach, and
eagerly conducted him to the walls of Pheneus. On leaving he
gave me a beauteous quiver with Lycian arrows, and a scarf-
embroidered with gold, and two bridles which my Pallas has
now, all golden. So now I both plight you herewith the hand
you ask, and soon as to-morrow's light shall restore to the earth
its blessing, I will send you back rejoicing in an armed succour,
and reinforced with stores. Meanwhile, since you are arrivetl
here as my friends, join in gladly solemnising with us this our
yearly celebration, which it were sin to postpone, and accustom
yourselves thus early to the hospitalities of your new allies.'

This said, he bids set on again the viands and the cups,
crewliile removed, and himself places the Avarriors on a seat
of turf, welcoming .ZEneas in especial grace with the heaped
cushion of a shaggy lion's hide, and bidding him occupy a
throne of maple wood. Then chosen youths and the priest
of the altar with emulous zeal bring in the roasted carcases
of bulls, pile up in baskets the gifts of the corn-goddess
prepared by art, and serve the wine-god round, .^neas and
the warriors of Troy with him regale themselves on a bull's
long chine and on sacrificial entrails.

BOOK VIII. 152-215. 295

"\^^len hunger had been quenched and appetite allayed, king
Evander begins : * Think not that these solemnities of ours,
these ritual feastings, this altar so blest in divine presence,
have been riveted on us by idle superstition, unknowing
of the gods of old; no, guest of Troj', it is deliverance from
cruel dangers that makes us sacrifice a]5d pay again and again
■worship where worship is due. First of all cast your eyes on
this rock-hung crag : observe how the masses of stone are
flung here and there, how desolate and exposed stands the
mountain's recess, and how the rocks have left tlie trail of a
giant downfall. Here once was a cave, retiring in enormous
depth, tenanted by a terrible shape, Cacus, half man, half
brute : tlie sun's rays could never pierce it ; the ground was
always steaming with fresh carnage; fixed to its imperious
portals were hanging human countenances ghastly with hideous
gore. This monster's father was Vulcan : Vulcan's were the
murky fires that he disgorged from his mouth as he towered
along in enormous bulk. To us also at length in our yearn-
ing need time brought the arrival of a divine helper. For the
mightiest of avengers, Alcides, triumphing in the slaughter
and the spoils of tlie triple Geryon, was in our land, and was
driving by this road as a conqueror those giant oxen, and the
cattle were filling valley and river-side. Lut Cacus, infatuated
by fiendish frenzy, not to leave aught of crime or craft un-
dared or unessayed, carries off from the stalls four bulls of
goodly form, and heifers no fewer of surpassing beauty. And
these, that they might leave no traces by their forward motion,
he dragged by the tail to his cave, haled them with reversed
footprints to tell the story, and so concealed them in the dark
rocky den. Thus the seeker found no traces to lead him to the
cavern. Meantime, when Amphitryon's son was at last remov-
ing from their stalls his feasted herds and preparing to quit
the countrv, the oxen gave a farewell low, filling the whole

296 THE .^NEID.

woodland with their plaining?, and taking clamorous leave of
the hills. One of the heifers returned the sound, lowing from
the depth of the vast cavern, and thus baffled the hopes of her
jealous guardian. IS'ow, if ever, Alcides' wrath blazed up from
the black choler of his heart : he snatches up his weapons and
his club with all its weight of knots, and makes at full speed
for the skiey mountain's height. Then first the men of our
country saw Cacus' limbs tremble and his eyes quail : away he
flies swifter than the wind, and seeks his den ; fear has winged
his feet. Scarce had he shut himself in, and let down from
its burst fastenings the huge stone, suspended there by his
father's workmanship in iron, and with that barrier fortified
his straining doorway, when lo ! the hero of Tiryns Avas there
in the fury of his soul : scanning every inlet he turns his face
hither and thither, gnashing with his teeth. Thrice in white
heat of wrath he surveys the whole mass of Aventine ; thrice
he attempts in vain the stony portal j thrice, staggering from
the effort, he sits down in the hollow. Before him stood a
pointed crag with abrupt rocky sides rising over the cave be-
hind, high as the eye can reach, a fitting home for the nests
of unclean and hateful birds. This, as sloping down it in-
clined towards the river on the left, pushing it full on the
right he upheaved and tore it loose from its seat, then suddenly
sent it down, with a shock at which high heaven thunders,
the banks start apart, and the river runs back in terror. Then
the cave and the vast halls of Cacus were seen unroofed, and
the dark recesses lay open to their depths — even as if earth, by
some mighty force laid open to her depths, should burst the
doors of the mansions below, and expose the realms of ghastly
gloom which the gods hate, and from above the vast abyss
were to be seen, and the spectres dazzled by the influx of day.
So as Cacus stares surprised by the sudden burst of light, pent
"by the walls of his cave, and roars in strange and hideous sort,

BOOK VIII. 215-279. 297

Alcides from above sliowers down his darts, and calls every
weapon to his aid, and rains a tempest of boughs and huge
millstones. But he, seeing that no hope of flight remains,
vomits from his throat huge volumes of smoke, marvellous
to tell, and wraps the whole place in pitchv darkness, blotting

^£'
•'

out all prospect from the eyes, and in ^■depth of the cave
masses a smothering night of blended blackness and fire. The
rage of Alcides brooked not this : headlong he dashed through
tlie flame, where the smoke surges thickest and the vast cavern
.seethes with billows of black vapour. Here while Cacus in
the heart of the gloom is vomiting his helpleas fires he seizes
him, twines his limbs with his own, and in fierce embrace
compresses his strangled eyeballs and his throat now bloodless
and dry. At once the doors are burst and the black den laid
bare, and the plundered oxen, the spoil that his oath had
disclaimed, are exposed to light, and the hideous carcase is
dragged out by the heels. The gazers look unsatisfied on
those dreadful eyes, those grim features, the shaggy breast
of the half bestial monster, and the extinguished furnace
of his throat. Since then grateful acknowledgments have
been paid, and the men of younger time have joyfully
observed the day : foremost among them Potitius, founder
of the ceremony, and the Pinarian house, custodian of the
worship of Hercules. He himself set up in the grove this
altar, which shall ever be named by us the greatest, and shall
ever be the greatest in truth. Come then, warriors, and in
honour of worth so glorious wreathe your locks with leaves,
and present in your hands brimming cups, and invoke our
common deity, and pour libations Avith gladness of heart.' As
he ended, the white-green poplar cast its Herculean shade over
his locks and hung down with a festoon of leaves, and the sacred
goblet charged his hand. At once all with glad hearts poui
libations on the board and make prayers to heaven.

298 THE JENEID

Meantime evening is approaching nearer tlie slope of
heaven, and already the priests and their chief Potitius were
in procession, clad in skins in ritual sort, and bearing fire in
their hands. They renew the solemn fenst, and bring deli-
cious offerings for a fresh repast, and pile the altars with
loaded chargers. "^^H come the Salii to sing round about
the blazing altars, Tneir temples wreathed with boughs of
poplar, a company of youths and another of old men ; and
these extol in son" the fjlorios and deeds of Hercules : how in
his cradle, by the pressure of his young hand he strangled
his stq)mothei^ monstrous messengers, the two serpents ;
how in war that same hand dashed to pieces mighty cities,
Troy and CEchalia ; how he endured those thousand heavy
labours, a slave to king Eurystheus, by ungentle Juno's fate-
ful will. * Yes, thou, unconquered hero, thou slayest the
two-formed children of the cloud, Hylseus and Pholus, thou
slayest the portent of Crete, and the enormous lion that
dwelt 'neath Nemea's rock. Thou never quailcdst at aught
in bodily shape, no, nor at Typhoeus himself, towering high,
weapons in hand ; thy reason failed thee not when Lerna's
serpent stood round thee with all her throng of heads. Hail
to thee, authentic offspring of Jove, fresh ornament of the
sky ! come to us, come to these thine own rites with favour-
ing smile and auspicious gait.' Such things their songs com-
memorate ; and they crown all with Cacus' cave and the fiend
himself, the fire panting from his lungs. The entire gro\e
echoes with their voices, and the hills rebound.

The sacrifice over, the whole concourse returns to the city.
There walked the king, mossed over with years, keeping at
his side ^neas and his son as he moved along, and lightening
the way with various speech, .^neas admires, and turns his
quick glance from sight to sight : each scene enthralls him ;
and with eager zest he enquires and learns one by one tlie

BOOK VIII. 2S0-345. 299

records of men of old. Then spoke king Evander, the builder
of Rome's tower-crowned liill : ' These woodlands were first
inhabited by native Fauns and Nymphs, and by a race of
men that sprung from trunks of trees and hard oaken core ;
no rule of life, no culture had they : they never leamt to
yoke the ox, nor to hive their stores, nor to husband what
they got; the boughs and the chase supplied their savage
sustenance. The first change came from Saturn, who arrived
from skiey Olympus, flying from the arms of Jove, a realm-
less exile. He brought together the race, untamed as they
were and scattered over mountain heights, and gave them
laws, and chose for the country the name of Latium, because
he had found it a safe hiding-place. The golden age of story
was when he was king, so calm and peaceful his rule over his
people ; till gradually there crept in a race of worse grain and
duller hue, and the frenzy of war, and the greed of having.
Then came the host of Ausonia and the Sicanian tribes, and
again and again Saturn's land changed its name ; then came
king after king, savage Thybris with his giant bulk, from
wliom in after days we Italians called the river Tiber : the
authentic name of ancient Albula was lost. Myself, an exile
from my country, while voyaging to the ends of the sea, all-
powerful Fortune and inevitable Destiny planted here ; at my
back were the awful bests of my mother, the nymph Car-
mentis, and the divine sanction of Apollo.' Scarce had he
finished, when moving on he points out the altar and the Car-
mental gate, as the Eomans call it, their ancient tribute to the
nymph Carmentis, the soothsaying seer, who first told of the
future greatness of Eneas' sons and of the glories of Pallanteum.
^xthe points out a mighty grove, which fiery Eomulus made
the Asylum of a later day, and embowered by the chill dank
rock, the Lupercal, bearing after Arcadian wont the name of
Lycoean Pan. He shows, moreover, the forest of hallowed

300 THE AiNEID.

Argiletum, and appeals to the spot, and recounts the death of
Argus, once his guest. Thence he leads the way to the Tar-
peian temple, even the Capitol, now gay with gold, then rough
with untrimmed brushwood. Even in that day the sacred
terrors of the spot awed the trembling rustics ; even then they
shuddered at the forest and the rock. ' This_ wood,' he says,
' this hill with the shaggy brow, is the home of a god of whom
we know not ; my Arcadians believe that they have seen there
great Jove himself, oft and oft, shaking with his right hand
the shadowy JEgis and calling up the storm. Here, too, in
these two towns, with their ramparts overthrown, you see the
relics and the chronicles of bygone ages. This tower was
built by father Janus, that by Saturn ; the one's name Jani-
culum, the other's Saturnia.' So talking together they came
nigh the palace where Evander dwells in poverty, and saw
cattle all about lowing in the Roman forum and Carinae's
luxurious precinct. When they reached the gate, ' This door,'
said the host, ' Alcides in his triumph stooped to enter ; this
mansion contained his presence. Nerve yourself, my guest,
to look down on riches, and make your own soul, like his,
such as a god would not disdain, and take in no churlish sort
the welcome of poverty.' He said, and beneath the slope of
his narrow roof ushered in the groat ^neas, and laid him to
rest on a couch of leaves and the skin of a Libyan bear.

Down comes the night, and flaps her sable wings over the
earth. But Venus, distracted, and not idly, with a mother's
cares, disturbed by the menaces of the Laurentines and tlio
violence of the gathering storm, addresses Vulcan, and in the
nuptial privacy of their golden chamber begins her speech,
breathing in every tone the love that gods feel : ' In old days
of war, while the Argive kings were desolating Pergamus, their
destined p'rey, and ravaging the towers which were doomed to
hostile fire, no help for the sufferers, no arms of thy resourceful

BOOK VIII. 346-409. 301

workmansliip did I ask ; no, my dearest lord, I cliose not to
task thee and tliy efforts to no end, large as was my debt to
the sons of Priam, and many the tears that I shed for -Eneas'
cruel agony. Now, by Jove's commands, he has set his foot on
Rutulian soil ; so, with the past in my mind, I appear as a sup- aa-^^a^.
pliant, to ask of his power whom I honour most, as a mother
may, armour for my son. Thee the daughter of jJiereus,
thee the spouse of Tithonus, found accessible to tears. See
but what nations are mustering, what cities are closing the
gate and pointing the steel against me and the lives I love.'
The speech was ended, and the goddess is fondling her unde-
cided lord on all sides in the soft embrace of her snowy arms.
Suddenly he caught the wonted fire, the well-known heat shot
to his vitals and threaded his melting frame, even as on a
day when the fiery rent burst by the thunderclap ruus with
gleaming flash along the veil of cloud. His spouse saw the-
triumph of her art and felt what beauty can do. Then spoke
the stern old god, subdued by everlasting love : ' Why fetch
your excuses from so far? whither, my queen, has fled 3'our
old affiance in me ? had you then been as anxious, even in
those old days it had been allowed to give arms to the Trojans ;
nor was the almighty sire nor the destinies unwilling that Troy
should stand and Priam remain in life for ten years more.
And now, if war is your object and so your purpose holds, all
the care that it lies within my art to promise, what can be
wrought out of iron and molten electrum, as far as fire can
burn and wind blow — cease to show by entreaty that you mis-
trust j'our power.' This said, he gave the embrace she longed
for, and falling on the bosom of his spouse wooed the calm of
slumber in every limb.

Then, soon as rest, first indulged, had driven sleep away,
when flying night had run half her course; just when a
woman, compelled to support life by spinning, even by Pallas'

302 THE ALNEID.

slender craft, wakes to liglit the fiic that shimbered in llie
embers, adding night to her day's work, and keeps her hand-
maids labouring long by the blaze, all that she may preserve
her husband's bed unsullied, and bring up his infant sons ;
even so the lord of fire, at an hour not less slothful, rises from
his couch of down to the toils of the artisan. There rises an
island hard by the Sicanian coast and iEolian Lipari, tower-
ing with fiery mountains ; beneath it thunders a cavern, the
den of -^tna, blasted out by Cyclop forges ; the sound of
mighty blows echoes on anvils : the smeltings of the Chalybes
hiss through its depths, and the fire pants from the jaws of
the furnace ; it is the abode of Vulcan, and the land bears
Vulcan's name. Hither, then, the lord of fire descends from
heaven's height. There, in the enormous den, the Cyclops
were forging the iron, Brontes, and Stei-opes, and Pyracmon,
the naked giant. In their hands was the rough cast of the
thunder-bolt, one of those many which the great Father
showers down on earth from all quarters of heaven — part was
polished for use, part still incomplete. Three spokes of frozen
rain, three of watery cloud had they put together, three of
ruddy flame and winged southern wind ; and now they were
blending with what they had done the fearful flash, and tlie
noise, and the terror, and the fury of untiring fire. In another
part they were hurrying on for Mars the car and the flying
wheels, with which he rouses Avarriors to madness, ay, and
whole cities ; and with emulous zeal were making bright with
golden serpent scales the terrible -^gis, the armour of angry
Pallas, snakes wreathed together, and full on the breast of the
goddess the Gorgon herself, her neck severed and her eyes
rolling. ' Away with all this,' cries the god ; ' take your
imfinished tasks elsewhere, you Cyclops of ^tna, and give
your attention here. Arms are wanted for a fiery warrior.
NoAV is the call for power, now for swiftness of hand, now for

BOOK VIII. 410-^73. 3^5

all that art can teacli. Turn delay into dospatcb,' No more
he said ; but they with speed put their shoulder to the work,
sharing it in equal parts. Copper flows in streams and golden
ore, and steel, that knows how to wound, is molten in the
huge furnace. They set up in outline a mighty shield, itself
singly matched against all the Latian weapons, and tangle to-
gether seven plates, circle and circle. Some with their gasp-
ing bellows are taking in and giving out the wind ; others are
dipping the hissing copper in the lake. The cave groans
under the anvil's weight. They, one with another, Avith all a
giant's strength, are lifting their arms in measured cadence,
and turning with their griping tongs the ore on this side and
on that.

While the father of Lemnos makes this despatch on the
^■^olian shores, Evander is roused from his lowly dwelling by
the genial light and the morning songs of birds under the
eaves. Up rises the old man, and draws a tunic over his
frame, and puts Tyrrhenian sandals round his feet ; next he
fastens from below to side and shoulder a sword from Tegea,
flinging back over him a panther's hide that drooped from
the left. Moreover, two guardian dogs go before him from
his palace door, and attend their master's steps. So he made
his way to the lodging of his guest, and sought Eneas' privacy,
their discourse of yesterday and the gift then promised fresh
in his heroic soul. .i^Eneas likewise was astir not less early.
This had his son Pallas, that had Achates walking by his
side. They meet, and join hand in hand, and sit them down
in the midst of the mansion, and at last enjoy the privilege of
mutual talk. The king begins as follows : —

' Mightiest leader of the Teucrians, whom while heaven
preserves I shall never own that Troy's powers are vanquished
or her realm overturned, we ourselves have but small means
of martial aid to back our great name ; on this side we are

/

304 THE mNEID.

Lounded by the Tuscan river : on tliat our Eutulian foe
beleaguers us, and thunders in arms around our walls. But I
have a mighty nation, a host with an imperial heritage, whicli
I am ready to unite with you — a gleam of safety revealed by
unexpected chance. It is at the summons of destiny that you
bend your steps thither. Not far hence, built of ancient
stone, is the inhabited city of Agylla, where of old the Lydiaii
nation, renowned in war, took its seat on Etruscan mountains.
This city, after long and prosperous years, was held by king
JNIezentius, by stress of tyrant rule and the terror of the
sword. Why should I recount the despot's dreadful murders
and all his savage crimes? may the gods preserve them in
mind, and bring them on his own head and his family's !
Nay, he would even link together the dead and the living,
coupling hand with hand and face with face — so inventive is
the lust of torture — and in the slime and poison of that
sickening embrace would destroy them thus by a lingering
dissolution. At last, wearied by oppression, his subjects in
arms besiege the frantic monster himself and his palace, slay
his retainers, shower firebrands on his roof. He, mid the
carnage, escapes to Eutulian territory, and shelters himself
under Turnus' friendly power. So all Etruria has risen in
righteous wrath ; at once, at the sword's point, they demand
that the king be surrendered to their vengeance. Of these
thousands, ^neas, I will make j'ou general For along
the seaboard's length their ships are swarming and panting
for the fray, and calling on the trumpet to sound, while an
aged soothsayer is holding them back by his fateful utter-
ance : " Chosen warriors of Maeonian land, the power and
soul of an ancient nation, whom just resentment launches
against the foe and Mezentius inflames with righteous fury,
no Italian may take the reins of a race so proud : 9hoose
foreigners to lead you." At this the Etruscan army settled

BOOK VIII. 473-533- 3^5

flown on yonder plain, awed by the heavenly warning. Tarchon
himself has sent me ambassadors with the royal crown and
sceptre, and given to my hands the ensigns of power, bidding
me join the camp, and assume the Tyrrhene tlirone. But age,
with its enfeebling chill and the exhaustion of its long term
of years, grudges me the honour of command ; my day of
martial prowess is past. Fain would I encourage my son to
the task, but that the blood of a Sabine motlier blending with
mine makes his race half Italian. You, in years and in race
alike the object of Fate's indulgence — you, the chosen one of
Heaven — assume the place that waits you, gallant general of
Teucrians and Italians both. Nay, I will give you, too,
Pallas here, tlie hope and solace of my age ; under your
tutelage let him learn to endure military service and the war-
god's strenuous labours ; let your actions be his pattern, and
his young admiration be centred on you. To him I will give
two hundred Arcadian horsemen, the flower of my chivalry,
and Pallas in his own name shall give you as many more.'

Scarce had his words been uttered — and the twain were
holding their eyes in downcast thought, .^neas Anchises' son
and true Achates, brooding each with his own sad heart on
many a peril, had not Cythera's goddess sent a sign from the
clear skv. For unforeseen, flashed from the heaven, comes
a glare and a peal, and all around seemed crashing down at
once, and the clang of the Tyrrhene trumpet appeared to
blare through ether. They look up : a second and a third
time cracks the enormous sound. Armour enveloped in a
cloud in a clear quarter of the firmament is seen to flash redly
in the sunlight and to ring as clashed together. The rest
were all amazement ; but the Trojan hero recognised the
sound, and in it the promise of his goddess mother. Then he
cries : ' Nay, my host, nay, ask not in sooth what chance these

wonders portend; it is I that have a call from on liigh. This

u

3o6 THE JENEID.

was the sign that the goddess who gave me birth foreshowed
me that slie would send, should the attack of war come, while
she would bring through the air armour from Vulcan for my
help. Alas ! how vast the carnage ready to burst on Lauren-
tum's wretched sons ! what vengeance, Turnus, shall be mine
from thee ! how many a warrior's shield and helm and stal-
wart frame shalt thou toss beneath thy waters, father Tiber !
Ay, clamour for battle, and break your plighted word ! '

Thus having said, he rises from his lofty seat, and first
of all quickens the altars where the Herculean fires Avere
Bmouldering, and with glad heart approaches the hearth-god
of yesterday, and the small household powers ; duly they
sacrifice chosen sheep, Evander for his part and the Trojan
youth for theirs. Next he moves on to the ships and revisits
his crew : from whose number he chooses men to follow him
to the war, eminent in valour : the rest are wafted down the
stream and float lazily along with the current at their back,
to bring Ascanius news of his father and his fortunes. Horses
are given to the Teucrians who are seeking the Tyrrhene
territory, and one is led along, reserved for ^neas ; a tawny
lion's hide covers it wholly, gleaming forth with talons of gold.

At once flies rumour, blazed through the little city, that
the horsemen are marching with speed to the gates of the
Tyrrhene king. In alarm the matrons redouble their vows ;
fear treads on the heels of danger, and the features of the
war-god loom larger on the view. Then Evander, clasping
the hand of his departing son, hangs about him with tears
that never have their fill, and speaks like this : ' Ah ! would
but Jupiter bring back my bygone years, and make me what
I was when under Prseneste's very walls I struck down the
first rank and set a conqueror's torch to piles of shields, and
with this my hand sent down to Tartarus king Erulus, whom
at his birth his mother Feronia endowed with three lives —

BOOK VIII. 534-596. 3Q7

fearful to tell — and. a frame that could thrice bear arms :
thrice had he to be struck down in deatli : yet from him ou
that day this hand took all those three lives, and thrice
stripped that armour — never should I, as now, be torn, my
son, from your loved embrace, ^"^ever would Mezentius have
laid dishonour on a neighbour's crest, dealt with his sword
that repeated havoc, and bereaved my city of so many of
her sons. But you, great powers above, and thou, Jupiter,
mightiest ruler of the gods, have pity, I implore you, on an
Arcadian monarch, and give ear to a father's prayer ; if your
august will, if destiny has in store for me the safe return oi
my Pallas, if life will make me see him and meet him once
more, then I pray that I may live ; there is no trial I cannot
bear to outlast. But if thou, dark Fortune, threatenest any
unnamed calamity, now, oh, now, be it granted me to snap
life's ruthless thread, while care wears a double face, while
hope cannot spell the future, while you, darling boy, my love
and late delight, are still in my arms : nor let my ears be
pierced by tidings more terrible.' So was the father heard to
speak at their last parting ; his servants were seen carrying
within doors their fallen lord.

A:id now the cavalry had passed the city's open gates,
^neas among the first and true Achates, and after them the
other Trojan nobles ; Pallas himself the centre of the column,
conspicuous with gay scarf and figured armour; even as the
morning-star just bathed in the waves of the ocean, Yenus'
favourite above all the stellar fires, sets in a moment on the
sky his heavenly countenance, and melts the darkness. There
are the trembling matrons standing on the walls, following
with their eyes the cloud of dust and the gleam of the brass-
clad companies. They in their armour are moving through
the underwood, their eye on the nearest path : hark ! a shout
mounts up, a column is formed, and the four-foot beat of ihe

3o» THE JENEID

hoof sliakes tlie crumbling plain. Near the cool stream of
Caere stands a vast grove, clothed by hereditary reverence
"with wide-spread sanctity ; on all sides it is shut in by the
hollows of hills, which encompass its dark pine-wood shades.
Rumour says that the old Pelasgians dedicated it to Silvanus,
god of the country and the cattle, a grove with a holiday —
the people who once in early times dwelt on the Latian
frontier. Kot far from this "Jarchon and the Tyrrhenians
were encamped in a sheltered place, and from the height of
the hill their whole army spread already to the view, as they
pitched at large over the plain. Hither come father ^Eneas
and the chosen company of warriors, and refresh the weariness
of themselves and their steeds.

But Venus had come in her divine beauty through the
dark clouds of heaven with the gifts in her hand, and soon
as she saw her son far retired in the vale in the privacy of the
cool stream, she thus accosted him, appearing suddenly before
him : ' See, here is the present completed by my lord's pro-
mised skill : now you will not need to hesitate to-morrow
about daring to the combat the haughty Laurentians or fiery
Turnus' self.' So said the lady of Cythera, and sought her
son's embrace : the arms she set up to glitter under an oak that
faced his view. He, exulting in the goddess' gifts, and charmed
wdth their dazzling beauty, cannot feast his eyes enough as he
rolls them from point to point, admiring and turning over in
his hands and arms the helmet with its dread crest, vomiting
flame, the fateful sword, the stiff brazen corselet, blood-red and
huge, in hue as when a dark cloud kindles with sunlight and
gleams afar ; the polished cuishes, too, of electrum and gold
smelted oft and oft, and the spear, and the shield's ineffable
frame-work. On tins Avas the story of Italy and the triuiniihs
of the Romans wruught by the Lord of the fire; no stranger
he to prophecy nor ignorant of the time to come : on it was

BOOK VIII. 596-659. 309

the ^Y]lole royal line of the future from Ascanius_i3nji£arcl,
and their foughten fields in long succession. There, too,
he had portrayed the nintliii-wolf stretched in Mars' green
cavern ; around her teats wcie the twin hoys in play climbing
and clinging, and licking their dam Avithout dread ; while
she, her lithe neck bent back, was caressing them by turns
and with her tongue shaping their young limbs. Near this
he had inserted Eome and the lawless rape of the Sabine
maidens amid the crowded circus, while the great games
were in course, and the sudden rise of a new war between
tlie sons of Romulus and ancient Tatius with his austere
Cures. Afterwards were seen the two kings, the conflict set
at rest, standing in arms before the altar of Jove witli goblets
in their hands and cementing a treaty with swine's blood.
Not far off Mettus had already been torn asunder by the
chariots driven apart — ah ! false Alban, were you but a
keeper of your word ! — and Tullus was dragging the traitor's
flesh through the woodland, while^ the bushes were sprinkled
with the bloody rain. There, too, was Porsenna insisting that
exiled Tarquin should be taken back and leaguering the city
with a mighty siege : Eneas' sons were flinging themselves on
the sword in freedom's cause. In his face might be seen the
likeness of wrath, and the likeness of menace, that Codes
should have the courage to tear down the bridge, that Cloelia
should break her prison and swim the river. There was
Manlius standing sentinel on the summit of the Tarpeian
fortress in the temple's front, holding the height of the
Capitol, while the Eomulean thatch looked fresh and sharp
on the palace-roof. And there was tlie silver goose fluttering
its wings in the gilded cloister, and shrieking that the Gauls
were at the door. The Gauls were at hand marching among
the brusliAVood, and had gained the summit sheltered by the
darkness and the kirdly grace of dusky night. Golden is

3IO THE JEN BID.

their liair and golden their raiment ; striped cloaks gleam on
their shoulders ; their milk-white necks are twined witli
gold ; each brandishes two Alpine javelins, his body guarded
by the long oval of his shield. There he had shown in
relief the Salii in their dances and the naked Luperci, and
the woolly peaks of their caps, and the sacred shields which
fell from heaven : chaste matrons were making solemn pro-
gress through the city in their soft-cushioned cars. At dis-
tance from these he introduces too the mansions of Tartarus,
Pluto's yawning portals, and the torments of crime, ami
thee, Catiline, poised on the beetling rock and quailing at
grim Fury-faces : and the good in their privacy, with Cato as
their lawgiver. Stretching in its breadth among these swept
the semblance of the swelling sea, all of gold, but the blue
was made to foam with whitening billows ; and all about it
dolphins of bright silver in joyous circles were lashing the
surface with their tails and cutting the tide. In the midst
might be seen fleets of brazen ships, the naval war of Actium ;
you might remark the whole of Leucate aglow with the
war-god's array, and the waves one blaze of gold. On this
side is Augustus Ca3sar leading the Italians to conflict, with
the senate and the people, the home-gods and their mighty
brethren, standing aloft on the stern : his auspicious brows
emit twin-born flames, and his ancestral star dawns over his
head. Elsewhere is Agrippa with the winds and the gods at
his back, towering high as he leads his column ; his brows
gleam with the beaked circle of a naval crown, the glorious
ornament of war. On that side is Antonius with his barbaric
powers and the arms of divers lands, triumphant from the
nations of the dawn-goddess and the red ocean's coast, carry-
ing with him Egypt and the strength of the East and the
utmost parts of Dactria, and at his side — shame on the profana-
tion ! — his Egyptian spouse. All are seen at once in fierce

BOOK VIII. 659-718. 311

onward motion : the uliole sea-floor foams up, torn by tlie
backward pull of the oars and by the three-fanged beaks.
On to the deep ! you would deem that uprooted Cyclades
were swimming the sea, or that tall hills were meeting hills
in battle ; such the giant effort with which the warriors urge
on their tower-crowned ships. From the hand is scattered a
shower of flaming tow and flying steel : the plains of Neptune
redden with unwonted carnage. In the midst of them the
queen is cheering on her forces with the timbrel of her native
land ; casting as yet no glance on the twin-born snakes that
threaten her rear. There are the portentous gods of all the
nations, and Anubis the barking monster, brandishing their
weapons in the face of Neptune and Venus and in the face
of Pallas. Midmost in the fray storms Mavors, relieved
in iron, and fell Fury-fiends swooping from the sky ; and
Discord sweeps along in the glory of her rent mantle,
and at her back Bellona with blood dropping scourge. There
was Actium's Apollo, with his eye on the fray, bending
his bow from above ; at whose terror all Egypt and Ind, all
Arabia, all the sons of Saba were turning the back in flight.
The queen herself was shown spreading her sails to friendly
breezes, and just loosing the sheets. On her face tlie
Lord of the Fire had written the paleness of foreshadowed
death, as she drove on among corpses before the tide and the
zephyr ; over against her was Nile, his vast body writliing in
woe, throwing open his bosom, and with his whole flowing
raiment inviting the vanquished to his green lap and hi^
sheltering flood. But Csesar, entering the walls of Rome in
threefold triumph, was consecrating to the gods of Italy a
votive tribute of deathless gratitude, three hundred mighty
fanes the whole city through. The ways were ringing with
gladness and with games and with plausivo peal ; in every
temple thronged a matron company, in every temple an altar

312 THE JEN EI D.

blazed ; in front of the altars slauc,4itereel bullocks streweil
the floor. The hero himself, throned on dazzling Phoebus'
snow-white threshold, is telling over the offerings of all the
nations and hanging them np on the proud temple gates ;
there in long procession move the conquered peoples, diverse
in tongue, diverse no less in garb and in armour. Here had
Mulciber portrayed the ISTouiad race and the zoneless sons of
Afric : here, too, Leleges and Carians and quivered Gelonians :
Euphrates was flowing with waves subdued already ; and the
Morini, furthest of mankind, and Rhine with his crescent
horn, and tameless Dahae, and Araxes chafing to bo bridged.
Such sights ^neas scans Avith wonder on Vulcan's shield, his
mother's gift, and joys in the portraiture of things he knows
not, as he heaves on his shoulder the fame and the fate of
grandsons yet to ba

( 3.13 )

BOOK IX.

While tliese tilings are in progress far away, Juno, Saturn's
daughter, has sent down Iris from above on an errand to
Turnus the bold. It chanced that then Turnus Avas sitting in
the grove of his sire Pilumnus, deep in the hallowed dell. Iliia
then the child of Thaumas bespoke tlius from her ros}' lips :
' Turnus, what no god would have dared to promise to your
prayers, lo ! the mere lapse of time has brought to you unasked.
/I^^neas, leaving behind town, comrades, and fleet, is gone to
seek the realm of the Palatine, the settlement of Evander. Nor
is that all: he has won his way to Cory thus' farthest towns,
and is arming the Lydian bands, the crowds of country folk.
Why hesitate ? now, now is the moment to call for horse and
car ; fling delay to the winds, and come down on the bewil-
dered camp.' So saying, she raised herself aloft on the poise
of her wings, and drew as she fled along the clouds her mighty
bow. The warrior knew his visitant, lifted his two hands to
heaven, and pursued her flight with words like these : ' Iri>;,
fair glory of the sky, Avho has sent thee down from heaven
to earth on an errand to me ? I see the firmament parting
asunder, and the stars reeling about the poles. Yes ! I follow
thy mighty presage, whoe'er thou art thus calling me to arms.'
With these words he went to the river-side, and took up
Avater from the brimming flood, calling oft on the gods and
burdening heaven with a multitude of vows.

And now his whole army was in motion along the open

31 1 THE ."ENEID.

]>Iain, richly dowered with horses, richly dowered with gold
and broidered raiment. Messapus marshals the van, Tyrr-
heus' warrior-sons the rear : Turnus himself, the general, is in
the centre — like Ganges Avith his seven calm streams proudly
rising through the silence, or Nile when he withdraws from
the plain his fertilising waters and has at last subsided into
his bed. Suddenly the Teucrians look forth on a cloud massed
with murky dust, and see darkness gathering over the plain.
First cries Caicus from the rampart's front : ' What mass have
Ave here, my countrymen, rolling towards us, black as night?
Quick with the steel, bring Aveapons, mnn the Avails, the
enemy is upon us, ho ! ' With loud shouts the Teucrians
pour themselves through all the gates and tlirough the bul-
Avarks. For such had been the charge of ^neas, that best of
soldiers, when going on his way ; should aught fall out mean-
time, let them not venture to draw out their lines or try the
fortune of the field : enough for them to guard camp and
Avail safe behind their eartlnvorks. So noAV, though shame
and anger prompt to an engagement, they shield themselves
nevertheless Avith closed gates in pursuance of his bidding,
and armed, within the covert of their toAvers, await the foe.
Turnus, just as he had galloped on in advance of his tardy
column, appears unforeseen before the gate with a chosen
folloAving of tAventy horse : Avith a Thracian steed to carry
him, spotted with white, and a golden helm Avith scarlet crest
to guard his head. ' Now, gallants, Avhich of you Avill venture
Avith me first against the foe 1 Look there ! ' he cries, and
Avith a Avhirl sends his javelin into the air, the overture of
battle, and proudly prances over the plain. His friends second
him Avith a shout and follow Avith dreadful cries ; they Avonder
at the Teucrians' sluggish hearts — men-at-arms, not to trust
themselves to a fair field or fight face to face, but keep nursing
their camp. Enraged, he rides round and round the walls,

BOOK IX. 26-90. 315

anii looks out for an opening where way is none. Even as a
wolf, lying in wait to surprise a crowded fold, whines about
the enclosure, exposed to wind and rain, at mid of night ; the
lambs, nestling safe under their mothers, keep bleating loudly ;
he maddened and reckless, gnashes his teetli at the prey be-
yond his reach, tormented by the long gathered rage of hunger
and his dry bloodless jaws : just so the Rutulian scans wall
and camp with kindling wrath ; grief fires the marrow of his
iron bones — how to essay an entrance 1 what way to dash the
prisoned Trojans from the rampart and fling them forth on
level ground? Close to the camp's side was lying the fleet, shored
round by earthworks and by the river ; this he assails, calling
for fire to his exulting mates, and filling his hand with a blazing
pine, himself all aglow. Driven on by Turnus' presence, they
double their efforts : each soldier of the band equips himself
with his murky torch. See, they have stripped the hearths :
the smoking brand sends up a pitchy glare, and the Fire-god
wafts clouds of soot and flame heaven-high.

Wliat god, ye Muses, shielded the Teucrians from a fire
so terrible 1 who warded off from the ships so vast a confla-
gration ? Tell me ; the faith in the tale is old, but its fame is
evergreen.

In early days, when ^neas in Phrygian Ida was first fashion-
ing his fleet and making ready for the high seas, the great
mother of the gods, they say, the Berecyntian queen, thus
addressed almighty Jove : ' Grant, my son, to thy mother's
prayer the boon she asks thee on thy conquest of Olympus.
A pine-forest is mine, endeared by the love of many years, a
sacred grove on the mountain's height, whither worshippers
brought their ofi'erings, bedarkened with black pitch-trees and
trunks of maple : these I was fain to give to the youth of
Dardany when he needed a fleet; now my anxious heart is
wrung by disturbing fears. Release me from my dread, and

3i6 THE JENEID.

let a mother's prayer avail thus much : let them he overcome
by no strain of voyage, no violence of wind. ; give them good
of their birth on my sacred hill' To her replied her son, who
Avields the starry sphere : ' 0 mother, whither wouldst thou
wrest the course of fate? what askest thou for these tliy
favourites 1 should vessels framed by mortal hand have charter
of immortality ? should ^neas, himself assured, meet perils
all unsure ? What god had ever privilege so great 1 Kay,
rather, when their service is over and they gain one day the
haven of Ausonia, from all such as escape the Avaves and con-
voy the Dardan chief safe to Laurentian soil, I will take away
their perishable shape, and summon them to the state of god-
desses of the mighty ocean, in form like Nereus' children, Doto
and Galatea, when they breast the foaming deep.' He said;
and by the river of his Stygian brother, by the banks that
seethe with pitch and are washed by the murky torrent, he
nodded confirmation, and with his nod made all Olympus
tremble.

So now the promised day was come, and the Destinies hail
fulfilled the time appointed, when Turnus' lawless violence
gave warning to the mighty mother to ward off the firebrand
from her consecrated ships. JS^ow in a moment a strange liglit
flashed on the eyes of all, and a great cloud was seen from tlie
quarter of the dawn-goddess running athwart the sky, with
the choirs of Ida in its train ; then came darting through the
air a voice of terror, thrilling the ranks of Trojan and Rutulian
from end to end : ' Busy not yourselves, ye Teucrians, to
defend my ships, nor take weapons into your hands : Turnus
shall have leave to burn up the ocean sooner than to consume
my sacred pines. Go free, my favourites : go and be goddesses
of the sea : it is the mother's voice that bids you.' And
at once each ship snaps her cable from the bank, and like a
dolphin dips her beak and makes for the bottom. Then all

BOOK IX. 90-152. 317

emerge in maiden forms, a marvel to behold, and breast the
main, as many as stood a moment ago with their brazen prows
to the shore.

Amazement seized tlie Eutulians ; terror came on TSIessapus
liimself, confusion on his steeds ; even Tiber, the river, pauses,
murmuring hoarsely, and retraces his seaward course. But
bold Turnus' confidence felt no check ; no, his words are ready
to encourage and upbraid : ' It is at tlie Trojans that these
portents point : Jove himself has robbed them of their wonted
resource ; they wait not for Kutulian fire and sword to do the
work. Yes, the sea is impassable to the Teucrians ; hope of
flight have they none ; one half of nature is taken from them ;
as for earth, it is in our hands, thanks to the thousands here
standing in arms, the tribes of Italy. I care not for the fateful
utterances of heaven that these Phrygians vaunt, be they
what Ihey may : fate and Venus have had license enough, in
that the Trojans have set foot on the soil of our rich Ausonia.
I, too, have a fate of my own, to mow down with the sword
the guilty nation that has stolen my bride ; that wrong of
theirs comes not home to the Atridse alone, nor has ^lycente
alone the privilege of going to war. But one destruction is
enough for them — ay, had one transgression been enough, so
that they had henceforth loathed the sex well-nigh to a woman.
Men who trust in their intervening rampart, whom the pause
at the trench, those few feet of distance from death, inspires
Avith courage. Why, did they not see their city of Troy sink
into the fire, though built by the hand of Neptune ? But you,
my chosen mates, who is there ready to hew down the rampart
and rush with me on their bewildered camp 1 I need not the
arms of Yulcan nor a thousand sail for 7nij Trojan war. Let
all Etruria join them in a body. JS'ight alarms, cowardly thefts
of their guardian image, slaughterings of the sentry on the
height, they need fear none of these ; we will not skulk in a

3i8 THE ^NEID.

horse's murky womb : in broad day, iu the sight of all, I stand
pledged to put a ring of fire round their walls. I will not let
them fancy they are dealing with the Danaans and the Pelasgiau
chivalry, whom Hector kept ten years waiting for their due.
Now, since the better part of the day is spent, for what
remains, gallants, refresh yourselves after your good service,
and be assured that battle is getting ready.'

Meantime the charge is given to Messapus to leaguer the
gates with relays of watchmen, and throw a girdle of fire round
the ramparts. Twice seven Eutulian chiefs are chosen to keep
armed observation of the walls : a hundred warriors attend on
each, red with scarlet crests and gleaming with gold. They
move from place to place and relieve one another, and stretched
on the grass give wine its fling and tilt the brazen bowl.
Bright shine the fires : the warders speed the wakeful night
with sport and game.

The Trojans look forth on the scene from their earth-works,
as in arms they man the summit ; with anxious fear they test
the gates, and link bridge and bulwark, their weapons in their
hands. First in the work are Mnestheus and keen Serestus,
whom father /Eneas, should adverse crisis call for action, left
to command the warriors and govern aff'airs at home. The
whole army along the wall, dividing the danger, keeps guard,
each relieving each at the post assigned.

The warder of the gate was Nisus, a soldier of keenest
mettle, Hyrtacus' son, whom Ida the huntress sent to attend
^neas, quick with the dart and the flying arrow : and at his
side Euryalus, than who was none fairer among .3j]neas'
children, none that ever donned the arms of Troy, a strii>
ling whose unrazored cheeks just showed the first bloom of
youth. Theirs was a common love : side by side they wont
to rush into the battle : and even then they were keeping
watch at the gate iu joint duty. !Nisus exclaims : ' Is it

BOOK IX. 152-215. 319

tlie gods, Euryalus, that make men's hearts glow thus 1 or
does each one's ungoverned yearning become his godl ^My
heart has long been astir to rush on war or other mighty deed,
nor will peaceful quiet content it. You see the Kutulians
there, delivered up to confidence in the future : their line of
lights gleams brokenly: unnerved with sleep and wine, yonder
they lie : all around is still. Listen on, and learn on what I
aui brooding, and what thought is this moment uppermost.
" ^Eneas should be recalled " — so cry people and leaders as
one man ; " messengers should be sent to tell him the truth."
If they pledge themselves to what I ask for you — for me
the fame of ihe deed is sufficient — methinks under the mound
yonder I could find a way to the city walls of Pallantcuni.'
A thrill of generous ambition struck wonder into Euryalus,
as thus he addressed his glowing friend: 'And would you
shrink from taking nie with you, Nisus, on this high occasion 1
Am I to send you out alone on such perilous errand 1 It was
not thus that my father, the veteran Opheltes, reared and
bred me among Argive terrors and Trojan agonies, nor have
such been my doings at your side, since I followed our hero
xEneas and his desperate fate. Here, here, within me is a
soul that thinks scorn of happy sunshine, and deems that the
glory at which you aim were cheaply bought with life.' ' l!^ay,'
returns Nisus, ' trust me, I had no such fear of you — none
such had been just : so may I return to you in triumph, by
grace of mighty Jove, or whosoever now looks down on us
Avith righteous eyes. But should aught — and a venture like
this, you see, has a thousand such — should aught sway things
amiss, be it chance or heaven's will, I woidd fain have you
spared : yours is the meeter age for life. Let me have one
to rescue me in fight, or redeem me by ransom paid, and so
consign me to the burial all receive : or should Fortune
grudge even that, to pay me the rites of the absent, and give

320 THE ,mNEID.

me tlie aJornmeut of a tomb. ITor let me be the cause of
grief so terrible to tliat unhappy parent, who alone of many
matrons has had a heart to follow yoa, dear boy, nor cares
for the city of great Acestes.' He replied : ' Spinning empty
pretexts is idle work : there is no change or faltering in my
resolve. Up and despatch ! ' At once he rouses the guard,
who take his place and fulfil their time, while he, departing
from the post, walks side by side with Nisus, and they seek
the prince together.

All else that breathed on earth were asleep, their load of
care unbound, their hearts oblivious of toil ; the chief leaders
of the Teucrians, the flower of the host, were holding council
on the crisis in their realm's fortune, what they should do,
or who should at length be sent with the news to iEneas.
There they stand propped on their long spears, their shields
still in their hands, in the midst of camp and plain. At this
moment Nisus and Euryalus eagerly crave instant admission
— the affair is great, say they, and well worth the pause it
claims. lulus was the first to welcome and reassure them,
and bid Nisus speak. Then began the son of Hyrtacus :
' Listen, ye sons of Troy, with kindly heed, nor let these our
proffers be judged by our years. The Eutulians, unnerved by
sleep and wine, are hushed in silence : we have ourselves
observed a place for a stealthy move, open through the passage
of the gate which abuts on the sea. The line of fires is
broken, and only dusky smoke rises to the sky : give us but
leave to make use of fortune, and go in quest of yEneas and
the walls of Pallanteum, soon shall you see us here again after
a mighty carnage, laden with spoils. N^or can the way
mislead us as we go : we have seen in the dimness of the
vale the outskirts of the city while persevering in our hunt-
ing, and have made acquaintance with the whole river's
course.' Then spoke Aletes, weighty with years and ripe of

BOOK IX. 215-279. 321

nnderstaudiug : ' Gods of our fathers, -w lioso constant presence
Avatches over Troy, not yet in spite of all do ye purpose to
make an utter end of us Teucrians, wlien such are the spirits
and so steadfast the hearts ye breed in our youth.' As he
said this, he kept embracing the necks and hands of both,
and bathing his cheeks in floods of tears. ' "What guerdons,
gallant men, Avhat can I fancy of worth enough to pay you
for glories like these? First and richest of all Avill be the
praise of heaven and your own hearts : next to these you
will receive the rest Avithout fail from good iEneas and
young Ascanius, who will never forget a service so great.'
' Nay,' cries Ascanius, * let me speak, me, whose safety i.s
bound up with my sire's return : by our great household
gods I adjure you, Xisus, by the deity of Assaracus' house
and the shrine of reverend Vesta — all my fortune, all my
trust, I place in your hands : bring back my father, let me see
him again ; he once restored, all grief is over. I will give
you a pah' of goblets wrought with silver and rough from
the chasing-tool, which my father took when he conquered
Arisba, a couple of tripods, two great talents of gold, and
an ancient bowl, Sidonian Dido its donor. But if it be
our victorious fortune to conquer Italy and attain the crown,
and appoint the lot for the booty — you saw the horse which
Turnus rode, the arms in which he moved all golden — that
horse, that shield, and the scarlet crest I will set apart from
the lot, and count it, Nisus, yours already. Moreover, my
sire shall give you twelve matron captives of choicest beauty,
male prisoners too, each with his armour, and, to crown all,
the portion of domain held by king Latinus himself. But you,
whose years are followed at nearer distance by my own, revered
youth, I take at once to my heart, and fold you there, my com-
rade for whatever betides. Never will I seek glory for my own
estate apart from you : whether I have peace or war on hand;

322 TILE .ENEID.

yours sliall be my utmost confidence in deeil and in word.'
To him spoke Euryalus in reply : ' No length of time shall
find me false to the promise of my bold essay : let but fortune
speed and not thwart us. But one boon I would ask of you
beyond, all others : I have a mother of Priam's ancient
house, Avliom not the land of Ilium, not the city of king
Acestes, could keej), poor soul, from going with me. Her I am
now leaving, ignorant of this peril, be it what it may, with
no word of greeting — Night and your right hand are my
witnesses — because I could not bear a parent's tears. But
you, I pray, comfort her need and support her lonely age.
With this trust in you to bear along with me, I shall meet all
that happens with a bolder spirit.' Touched to the heart, the
children of Dardanus broke into tears — chief of all the fair
lulus, as the picture of his own filial love flashed upon his
soul. Thus he speaks : ' Assure yourself that all shall be
done that your mighty deeds deserve. Yes, she shall be my
own mother, nought wanting but the name to make her Creusa's
self ; to have borne you lays up no mean store of gratitude.
AVliatever the fortune that attends your endeavour, I swear by
tills my head, by which my father has been wont to swear, all
that I promise to you in the event of your prosperous return,
shall remain in its fulness assured to your mother and your
house.' This he says weeping, and unbelts from his shoulder a
gilded sword wrought with rare art by Lycaon of Crete, and
fitted for use with a scabbard of ivory. To ISTisus ]\Inestheus
gives a skin, a lion's shaggy spoils : Aletes, true of heart, makes
an exchange of helmets. Their arming done they march along;
and as they go, the whole band of nobles, young and old, escorts
them to the gate with prayers for their safety. There too was
fair lulus, in heart and forethought manlier than his years, giv-
ing them many a charge to carry to his father. But the winds
scatter all alike, a ad deliver them cancelled to the clouds. A

BOOK IX. 279-34;. 323

Passing tlirougli the gate, tliey cross the trenches, and
through the midnight shade make for the hostile camp —
destined, though, first to be the death of manj'. All about
the grass they see bodies stretched at length by sleep and
wine, cars tilted up on the shore, men lying among wheels and
harness, with armour and pools of wine about them. First
spoke the son of Hyrtacus : ' Euryalus, daring hands are
Avanted ; the occasion now calls for action ; here lies our
way. Do you keep watch and wide look-out, lest any hand
be lifted against us from beliind ; I will lay these ranks
waste, and give you a broad path to Avalk in.' So saying,
he checks his voice, and at once Avith his tyrannous sword
assails Rhamnes, avIio, pillowed on a vast pile of rugs, was
breathing from all his breast the breath of sleep — a king
himself, and king Turnus' favourite augur ; but his augury
availed him not to ward off death. Close by he surprises
three attendants, stretched carelessly among their weapons,
and Remus' armour-bearer and charioteer, catching him as he
lay at the horses' side : the steel shears through their droop-
ing necks; then he lops the head of their lord, and leaves
the trunk gurgling and spouting blood, while ground and
couch are reeking with black streams of gore. Lamyrus too,
and Lamus, and young Serranus, who had played long that
night in the pride of his beauty, and was lying with the
dream-god's hand heavy upon him ; happy, had he made his
play as long as the night, and pushed it into morning. Like
a hungry lion making havoc through a teeming fold — for the
madness of famine constrains him — he goes mangling and
dragging along the feeble cattle, dumb with terror, and gnash-
ing his bloody teeth. Kor less the carnage of Euryalus : he,
too, all on fire, storms along, and slays on his road a vast and
nameless crowd, Fadus and Herbesus, and Rhoetus and Abaris
—unconscious these : Rhoetus was awake and saw it all, but

324 THE ALNEID.

ill Lis fear lie crouched beliind a massive bowl ; -wlience, as
he rose, the conqueror plunged into his fronting breast the
length of his sword, and drew it back with a torrent of death.
The dying man vomits forth his crimson life, and disgorges
mingled wine and blood : the foe pursues his stealthy work.
And now he was making for Messapus' followers, for there
he saw the flicker of dying fires, and horses tied and brows-
ijig at tlieir ease ; when thus spoke Nisus in brief, seeing him
hurried on by passion and excess of slaughter : ' Forbear we
now ; the daylight, our enemy, is at hand ; we have supped
on vengeance to the full; a highway is open through the foe.'
Many warriors' arms they leave, wrought of solid silver,
many bowls and gorgeous coverlets. Euryalus lays hand on
Khamnes' trappings and his belt with golden studs, sent by
wealthy Ccedicus of old as a present to Kemulus of Tiber,
when he fain would make him his friend from a distance ;
he, dying, leaves them to his grandson, after whose death the
Eutulians won them in battle ; these he strips off, and fits
them to his valiant breast, all for nought. Then he puts on
Messapus' shapely helm, with its graceful crest. They leave
the camp, and pass into safety.

Meanwhile a troop of horse, sent on from the town of
Latium, while the rest of the force abides drawn up on the
field, was on its way with a message to king Turnus, three
hundred, shield-bearers all, with Volscens, their chief. They
were just Hearing the camp, and passing under the wall, when
at distance they spy the two bending to the left, and the
helmet, seen in the glimmering twilight, betrayed the heedless
Euryalus, as the moonbeam flashed full upon it. The siglit
fell not on idle eyes. Volscens shout from his band : ' Halt,
gallants ; tell your errand, who you are thus armed, and
Avhither you are going.' They venture no reply, but hasten
the faster to the woods, and make the night their friend.

LOOK IX. 346-410. 325

Tlie horsemen bar each well-known passage right and left
and set a guard on every outlet. The wood was shagged witli
thickets and dark ilex boughs ; impenetrable briars filled it
on every side ; through the concealed tracks just gleamed a
narrow path. Euryalus is hampered by tlie darkness of the
branches, and the encumbrance of his booty, and fear makes
him miss the right line of road. Xisus shoots away : and
now in his forgetfulness he had escaped the foe, and gained
tlie region afterwards called Alban from Alba's name ; in-
that day king Latinus had there his stately stalls ; when he
halted, and looked back in vain for the friend he could not
see. ' My poor Euryalus ! where have I left you 1 what way
shall I trace you, unthreading all the tangled path of that
treacherous wood 1 ' As he speaks, he scans and retraces each
step, and wanders through the stillness of the brakes. He
hears the horses, hears the noise and the tokens of pursuit.
Pass a few moments, and a shout strikes on his car, and he
sees Euryalus, Avho is in the hands of the whole crew, the
victim of the ground and the night, bewildered by the sudden
onslaught, hurried along, and making a thousand fruitless
efforts. What should he do 1 with what force, what arms
can he attempt a rescue 1 should he dash through the thick of
their swords with death before his eyes, and hurry to a glori-
ous end in a shower of wounds 1 Soon, with his arm drawn
back, he poises his sjiear-shaft, looking up to the moon in the
sky, and thus prays aloud : ' Thou, goddess, be thou present,
and befriend my endeavour, Latona's daughter, glory of the
heavens and guardian of the woods : if ever my father
Hyrtacus brought gift for me to thine altar, if ever my own
hunting swelled the tribute, if ever I hung an offering from
thy dome or fastened it on thy hallowed summit, suffer me to
confound this mass, and giiide my weapons through the air.'
This said, with an effort of his whole frame he hurled the

326 THE jENEID.

steel. The flying spear strikes through the shades of night,
reaches the turned back of Sulmo, there snaps short, and
pierces the midriff with the broken wood, Down he tumbles,
disgorging from his breast the warm life-torrent that leaves
him cold, and long choking gasps smite on his sides. They
look round this way and that: while the same fell arm,
nerved by success, is levelling, see ! another weapon from
the ear-tip. "While all is confusion, the spear has passed
through Tagus' two temples with whizzing sound, and lies
warmly lodged in his cloven brain. Volscens storms with
fury, yet sees nowhere the author of the wound, nor on whom
to vent his rage : ' You, however, shall pay both debts
meanwhile with your heart's blood,' cries he ; and speaking,
rushes with drawn sword on Euryalus. Then, indeed, in
frantic agony, Nisus shouts aloud; no more care had he to
hide liimself in darkness, no more strength to bear grief so
terrible : * Me, me ! behold the doer ! make me your mark,
0 Eutulians ! mine is all the blame ; he had no heart, no hand
for such deeds ; this heaven, these stars know that it is true ;
it was but that he loved his unhappy friend too well.' Thus
he was pleading ; but the sword, driven with the arm's full
force, has pierced the ribs and is rending the snowy breast.
Down falls Euryalus in death ; over his beauteous limbs gushes
the blood, and his powerless neck sinks on his shoulders ; as
when a purple flower, severed by the plough, pines in death,
or poppies with faint necks droop the head, when rain has
chanced to weigh them down. But Nisus rushes full on tlie
foe, Volscens his one object among them all ; he cares for
Done but Volscens : the enemy cluster round, and assail
him on all sides ; none the less he holds on his Avay, whir-
ling his lifditnin'jr blade, till at last he lodges it full in the
Rutulian's face, as he shrieks for aid, and dying robs his foo
of life. Then he flung himself on his breathless friend,

BOOK IX. 411-475. 327

pierced througli and through, and there at length slept away
in peaceful death.

Happy pair ! if this ray aong has aught of potency, no lapse
of days shall efface your names from the memory of time, so
long as the house of ^neas shall dwell on the Capitol's move-
less rock, and a Roman father shall he the world's lord.

The Rutulian conquerors, enriched with spoil and booty,
were bearing Volscens' body to the camp with tears in their
eyes. Nor less loud is the wailing in the camp, when they
find Ehamnes drained of life, and those many chiefs slain by
a single carnage — Serranus, Numa, and the rest. Tliey flock
in crowds to the bodies, the warriors yet breathing, the place
fresh and reeking with slaughter, and the streams of gore full
and foaming. Tliey pass the spoils from hand to hand, and
recognise Messapus' gleaming helm, and the trappings which
it cost such sweat to recover.

Now at last the goddess of the dawn was sprinkling the
world with ew-born light, as she rose from Tithonus' saffron
couch : the sun had streamed in and all was revealed l)y day-
break, M-hen Turnus summons his juen to arms, himself
sheathed in armour ; each general musters in battle array his
brass-mailed bands, and, scattering divers speeches, stings
them to fury. Nay, more, on uplifted spears, most piteous
sight, they set up the heads, and follow them with deafening
shouts — the heads of Euryalus and Nisus. Eneas' sturdy
familj', on the rampart's left side, set the fight in array — foi-
the right is flanked by the river — guard the broad trenches
and stand on the lofty towers, deep in sorrow — touched to se^
those lifted human countenances, which to their grief they
knew so well, dripping with black corrupted gore.

Meantime, Fame spreads her wings and flies Avith the news
through the wildered settlement, and reaches the ears of
Kuryalus' mother. At once the vital heat left her wretciied

328 THE mNEID.

frame : the shuttle was dashed from her hands, and the
thread ran back. Forth flies the unhaj^py dame, and with, a
woman's piercing shriek, her tresses rent, makes madly for the
walls and the van of battle, heeding not the eyes of men,
heeding not the peril and the shower of javelins, while she
fills the heaven with her plaints : ' Is it thus, Euryalus, that
I see you again ? have you, the late solace of my waning years,
had the heart to leave me alone, unpitying ? nor, when you
ventured on such dangerous errand, might your wretched
mother speak her farewell ? Alas ! on an unknown land you
are lying, exposed to the ravin of Latium's dogs and birds ;
nor have I, your mother, followed your corpse to the tomb,
or closed your eyes, or bathed your wounds, shrouding you
with the robe which I worked so hard to finish day and
night, and made the loom the medicine of an old wife's
sorrow ! Where shall I seek you 1 what land now contains
those severed limbs, that mutilated corpse ? is this the sole
relic of yourself that you bring back to me, my son ? is this
Avhat I followed over land and sea ? Pierce me, if you have
aught of human feeling — shower on me all your darts, ye
Rutulians, let the sword make me its first meal ; or do thou,
great sire of the gods, have mercy, and with thy lightning-
bolt strike down to Tartarus tliis hated life, since I cannot
otherwise end the cruel pain of being.' Her wail shook every
heart to its centre ; a groan of sorrow passed through the
ranks ; their martial j)ro\ve3S flags and faints. At last, as her
agony flames higher, Idseus and Actor, bidden by Ilioneus and
tlie tearful lulus, lay hold of her, and carry in their arms
Avithin.

But the trumpet from its brazen throat uttered afar a
tremendous blare ; a shout ensues, and heaven returns the
roar. Quick speed the Volscians, carrying in level line their
penthouse of shields, and strive to fill tlie moat and pluck

BOOK IX. 476-539. 3-9

down the paH:~aJe. Some look about for an access, and fain
would scale the walls with ladders, where the line of defence
is thin, and the ring of men, not too closely set, shows a
gleaming interval. The Teucrians, on their part, shower
missiles of every sort, and repulse the assailants with strong
poles, taught by a long war's experience how to guard their
walls. Stones, too, they kept rolling qX- fatal bulk, in hope
to break through the foe's sheltered ranks, though beneath
so firm a penthouse a soldier may well smile at all that can
betide. Ay, and it ceases to avail them : for where a mighty
mass threatens the rampart, the Teucrians push forward and
roll down an enormous weight, which made wide havoc among
the Rutulians, and burst the joints of their harness. And now
the bold Rutulians care no longer to wacre Avar in the dark,
but aim at driving them from the ramparts Avith a storm of
missiles. In another quarter, terrible to look upon, Mezentius
Avaves an Etruscan pine and hurls fire and smoke, Avhile Mcs-
sapus, tamer of the steed, of the race of Neptune, plucks doAvn
the palisade, and calls for ladders to the battlement.

Vouchsafe, Calliope and thy heavenly sisterhood, to aid me
Avhile I sing, Avhat slaughter, Avhat deaths Avere dealt that day
in that place by Turnus' SAvord, Avhat foes each warrior sent
doAvn to the grave, and help me to unfold the length and
breadth of the mighty Avar.

A tower there Avas, vast to look on from beloAV, Avith lofty
bridges, placed on a vantage-ground, which all the Italians,
Avith utmost force and utmost strain of might, were essaying
to storm, Avhile the Trojans, on their side, Avere defending it
Avith stones, and hurling shoAvers of darts through its narrow
eyelets. Turnus the first flung a blazing torch and fastened
fire on its side ; fanned by the wind, the flame seized the
planks and lodged in the consuming doors. The inmates are
all in confusion, and in vain seek to escape the mischief.

3-!o THE .ENEID.

While they huddle together and retire upon the part which
the plague has spared, in an instant the tower falls heavily
down, and the firmament thunders with the crash. Half
dead they come to the ground, the huge fahric following on
their hacks, pierced by their own weapons, their breasts
impaled by the cruel wood. Barely two escaped, Helenor
and Lycus — Helenor in prime of youth, whom Licymnia the
slave had borne secretly to the MiBonian king, and had sent
to Troy in forbidden arms, with the light accoutrement of a
naked sword, and a shield uncharged by an escutcheon. Soon
as he saw himself with Turnus' thousands round him, the
armies of Latium standing on this side and on that, like a
beast that, hemmed in by the hunters' close-set ring, vents
her rage on the darts and flings herself deliberately on death,
and springs from high on the line of spears, even thus the
doomed youth rushes on the midst of the foe, making for where
lie sees the darts are thickest. But Lycus, far swifter of foot,
winds among ranks of foes and showers of steel and gains
the wall, and strives to clutch the fabric's summit and
reach the hands of his friends. "Whom Turnus, following
him at once with foot and javelin, taunts in victorious tone :
'Dreamed you, poor fool, that you could escape my hands?'
and with that he seizes him as he hangs in air, and pulls
him down wath a great fragment of the wall ; just as the
bearer of Jove's thunder trusses in his hooked talons a hare
or a snow-white swan and soars into the sky, or one of Mars'
wolves snatches from the fold a lamb which its mother's
bleatings reclaim in vain. On all sides rises the war-shout.
They rush on the trenches and fill them with shattered earth-
works, while others fling brazen firebrands to the roofs.
Ilioneus with a rock, broken from a mighty mountain, brings
down Lucetius as he assails the gates and waves h's torch.
Liger kills Emathion, Asilas Corynaeus, one skilled with the

BOOK IX. 539-604. 2j^

javelin, one -vvitli the arrow that surprises from a distance.
Cseneus slays Ortygius, Turnus the conqueror Cseneus, Turnus
Itys and Clonius, Dioxippus and Promolus, and Sagaris, and
Idas, who was standing on the turret's top. Capys kills
Privernus : Themilla's flying spear had grazed him first ; he,
poor fool, dropped his buckler and clapped his hand to the
wound, so the arrow came on stealthy wing, and the hanil
was pinned to the left side, and the inmost seat of breath is
rent asunder by the deadly wound. There stood the son of
Arcens in conspicuous armour, his scarf embroidered with
needlework, in the glory of lliberian purple, fair of form,
sent to war by his father Arcens, who had reared him in his
mother's grove by the streams of Symcethus, where stands
Palicus' rich and gracious altar : flinging his spears aside,
Mezentius whirled the strained thong of the whizzing sling
thrice round his head, and with the molten bullet burst in
twain the forehead of the fronting foe, and stretched him at
full length on the expanse of sand.

Then first, they say, Ascanius levelled in war his winged
arrow, used till then to terrify the beasts of chase, and
laid low by strength of hand the brave Numanus, Remulus
by surname, who had lately won and wedded Turnus' younger
sister. He was stalking in front of the host, vaunting aloud
things meet and unmeet to tell, in the insolence of new-blown
royalty, and venting his pride in clamorous tones : * Are ye
not ashamed to be imprisoned yet again in leaguer and ram-
part, twice-captured Phrygians, and to put your walls between
you and death? Lo, these are the men who demand our
wives at the sword's edge ! What god, what madness, has
driven you to Italy? You will not find the Atridae here,
nor Ulysses the forger of speech. A hardy race even from
the stock, we bring our sons soon as bom to the river's
Bide, and harden them with the water's cruel cold. Oui

332 THE .ENEID.

boys spend long days in the chase, and weary out the
forest; their sport is to rein tlie steed, and level shafts
from the bow. Our youth, strong to labour and schooled
by want, subdues the earth with the rake, or shakes the
city's walls -with battle. All our life we ply the steel ; with
the butt of our spears we belabour our cattle ; old age,
which dulls all else, impairs not the force of our hearts or
changes our fresh vigour ; the hoary head is clasped by the
helmet ; our constant joy is to bring home new booty and
live by rapine. Yours are embroidered garments of saffron
and gleaming purple ; sauntering and sloth are your delight ;
your pleasure is to indulge the dance ; your tunics have sleeves
and your turbans strings. Phrygian dames in sooth — for
Phrygian men ye are not — get you to the heights of Dindymus,
where the pipe utters its two-doored note to your accustomed
oars. Tlie Idjean mother's cymbals, the Berecyntian flute are
calling you to the revel ; leave arms to men, and meddle no
more with steel.'

Such boasting and such ill-omened talk Ascanius could bear
no longer ; setting his breast to the bow-string of horsehair
he levelled his dart, and drawing his arms wide apart he stood,
having first invoked Jove thus in suppliant prayer: 'Jove
Almighty, smile on my bold essay ; with my own hand I will
bring to thy temple yearly offerings, and will set before thine
altar a bullock with gilded brow, snowy white, rearing his
liead to the height of his mother's, fit to butt with the horn and
spurn up sand with the hoof.' The father heard and from a
cloudless quarter of the sky thundered on the left ; at the
same instant twanged the deadly bow. Forth flies the arrow
from the string, whizzing fearfully, passes through the head
of Remulus, and cleaves with its point his hollow temples.
*Go, make valour the sport of your boasting; the twice-cap-
tured Phrj'gians answer the Rutulians thus.' So far Ascanius.*

BOOK IX. 605-669. 333

tlie Teiicriaus second him with a cr}', shout for joy, and mount
heavenward in their exultation. It chanced that then in the
realm of sky long-haired Ajjollo was surveying the armies of
Ausonia and the city, seated on a cloud ; and thus addressed
lulus in the moment of triumph : ' Rejoice, brave youth, in
vour new-won laurels ; 'tis thus men climb the stars : son of
gods that are, sire of gods that shall be ! "Well has Fate
ordered that beneath the house of Assaracus the wars of the
future shall find their end; nor can Troy contain your prowess.'
So saying he shoots down from heaven, parts before him the
breathing gales, and makes for Ascanius. He changes his
features to tliose of ancient Butes, who had once been armour-
bearer to Dardaniau Anchises and trusty Avatcher at the gate ;
thence Ascanius' sire made him his son's guardian. Apollo
moved along, in all things like the aged veteran, the voice, the
colour, the white locks, the fiercely clanking armour ; and
thus he spoke to lulus' glowing heart : ' Suffice it, child of
.^neas, that Numanus has met from your darts an unrequited
death : this your maiden glory groat Apollo vouchsafes you
freely, nor looks with jealousy on weapons like his own ; for
the rest abstain from war, as stripling should.' So Apollo
began, and ere liis speech Avas well done parted from mortal
eyes, and vanished from sight into unsubstantial air. The
Dardan chiefs knew the god and his divine artillery, and heard
his qiiiver hurtle as he fled. So now at Phoebus' present
instance they check Ascanius' ardour for battle ; themselves
take their place in the combat once more, and fling their lives
into the jaws of danger. All over the walls passes the shout
from rampart to rampart; they bend their sharp-springing bowa
and hurl their lashed javelins — the ground is all strewn with
darts ; shields and hollow helms ring with blow on blow ; a
savage combat is aroused ; fierce as the rain coming from the
west at the setting of the showcrv kid-stars scourijes the earth,

334 THE .ENEID.

plenteous as the hail which the stonnclouds discharge into tho
sea, when Jove in the sullenness of southern blasts whirls the
watery tempest and bursts the misty chambers of tlie sky.

Pandarus and Bitias, sons of Idsean Alcanor, brought up by
Isera the wood-nymph in the grove of Jupiter, youths tall as
the pines and peaks of their birthplace, throw open the gate,
which the general's order placed in their charge, relying on
their good steel, and invite the foe to enter the town. Them-
selves within right and left stand before the bulwarks, sheathed
in iron, the crest waving on their lofty heads : even as high
in air beside the flowing streams, on Padus' banks it may be
or by pleasant Athesis, uptower two oaks, raising to heaven
their unshorn summits and nodding their lofty crowns. In
rush, the Kutulians Avhen they see the entry clear. In a
moment Quercens and Aquicolus in his briUiant armour and
headlong Tmarus and Haemon, scion of Mars, with all their
followers are routed and turned to flight, or on the threshold
of the gate have resigned their lives. At this the Avrath
of the combatants flames yet higher, and the Trojans rally
and muster in one spot and venture to engage hand to hand
and to advance farther into the plain.

Turnus, the chief, while venting his rage elsewhere and
scattering ranks of warriors, hears tidings that the foe, fevered
by the taste of blood, has thrown the gates open. He leaves
the work he had begun, and stirred with giant fury hastens
to the Dardan gate and the two hauglity brethren. Hurling
his dart, he first slays Antiphates, who happened first to meet
him, bastard son of great Sarpedon liy a Theban mother ; the
shaft of Italian cornel flies through the yielding air, and lodg-
ing in the throat goes deep down into the chest ; the wound's
dark pit spouts forth a foaming torrent, and the cold steel
grows warm in the lungs it pierces. Then with strong hand
he slays IMerops and Erymas and then Aphidnus, then Eitias

BOOK IX. 669-734. 335

with his blazing eyes and his boiling valuui- — not with a dait,
for to a dart he would not have surrendered his life — no ; it
was a whirled phalaric lance that came hurtling fiercely, shot
like a thunderbolt, which neither two bulls' hides nor a
trusty corselet with double golden plait could withstand : the
massive limbs sink and fall : earth groans, and the vast
buckler thunders on the body. Even thus sometimes on
Baiae's Euboean coast falls a pile of stone, which men compact
Avith mighty blocks and then fling into the sea ; thus it comes
down with protracted headlong ruin, and dashing on the
shallows settles into its place ; the sea is all disturbed, and
the murky sand rises to the surface ; the crash shakes Prochyta
to her depths, and Inarime's rugged bed, laid by Jove's com-
mand upon Typhoeus.

Now Mars, the lord of arms, inspires the Latians with
strength and courage, and plants his stings deep in their
bosoms, while among the Teucrians, he sends Flight and
grisly Terror. They flock from this side and from that, now
that scope for battle is given, and the warrior-god comes down
on their souls. "When Pandarus saw his brother's corpse laid
low, and knew the posture of fortune and the chance that was
swaying the day, with a mighty efi'ort he turns the gate on
its hinge, pushing with his broad shoidders, and leaves outside
many of his comrades shut out from the camp all in the cruel
battle, while others he shuts in with himself, admitting them
as they stream onward — madman, to have failed to see the
king of the Eutulians in the middle of the company storming
in, and to have shut him wantonly within the wails, like a
monstrous tiger among a herd of helpless cattle ! On the
instant a strange light flashed from the eyes of the foe, and
liis arms gave a fearful clang ; on his helm quivers his crest,
red as blood, and from his shield he darts gleaming lightnings.
With sudden confusion the children of ^neas recognise that

336 THE .^NEID.

liateJ form and tliose giant limbs. Th.-n forth springs miglity
Pandarus, and with all the glow of wrath for his brother's
death bespeaks him thus : ' This is not the bridal palace of
Amata, nor is it Ardea that embraces Turnus in the walls of
Lis fathers ; the enemy's camp is before you ; all escape is
barred.' To him Turnus, smiling in quiet mood : ' Begin,
if you have courage, and engage in combat, Priam shall learn
from you that here too you have found an Achilles.' Thus
he : Pandarus, with the full strain of his power, hurls his
spear, rugged with knots and unpeeled bark. It was launched
on the air ; but Saturnian Juno turned aside the coming
wound, and the spear lodged in the gate. ' But this my weapon
you shall not escape, swayed as it is by my hand's full force ;
he from whom wound and weapon come is too strong for that.'
So cries Turnus, and rises high upon his lifted sword, and
cleaves with the steel the forehead in twain full between tlie
temples, parting beardless cheek from cheek with a ghastly
wound. A crash is heard : earth is shaken by the enormous
weight : the unnerved limbs, the arms splashed with gore and
brain are stretched in death on the ground ; and the head,
shared in equal parts, hangs right and left from either
shoulder. The routed Trojans fly here and there in wildering
terror ; and had the thought at once seized the conqueror, to
burst the gates by main force and give entrance to his friend.^,
that day would have ended a war and a nation both. But
rage and mad thirst for blood drove him in fury on the foe
before him. First he surprises Phalaris and hamstrings
Gyges ; plucks forth spears and hurls them on the backs of
the fliers ; Juno gives supplies of strength and courage. He
sends Halys to join them and Phegeus, pierced through the
shield, and cuts down others as they stand unconscious on the
walls and stir up the battle, Alcander and Halius, and Noeraon
and Prytanis. As Lynceus moved to meet him and calls on

BOOK IX. 734-799- 337

his comrades, M'itli a sweep of his arm from the rampart on
his right he catches him with his wliirHng sword ; swept oti'
by a single blow hand to hand, the head with the helmet on
it lay yards away. Xext falls Amycus, the ravager of the
forest brood, than who was never man more skilled to anoint
the dart and arm the steel with venom, and Clytius, son of
^5^>olus, and Cretheus, darling of the Muses, Cretheus the
IMuses' playmate, whose delight was ever in minstrelsy and
harp, and in stringing notes on the chord ; songs of chargers
and warrior arms and battles were ever on his lips.

At last the Teucrian leaders, hearing of the slaughter of
their men, come together to the spot, Mnestheus anel keen
Serestus, when they see their comrades flying in confusion,
and the foe lodged in the camp. Out cries jNInestheus :
' Whither now, whither arc ye making in flight ? what further
city have ye, what walls beyond? Shall it be said that a
single man, and he too, my countrymen, hemmed in on all
hands by your ramparts, has spread unavenged such havoc
through your streets, has sent down to death so many of your
bravest 1 As ye think of your unhappy country, your ancient
gods, your great ^neas, is there no pity, no shame in your
sluggish hearts?' Roused by these words they rally and halt
in close array. Turnus step by step Avithdraws from the
fight, making for the river and the part round which the
water runs. All tlie more keenly the Teucrians press on
him Avith loud shouts and close their ranks : as Avhen a
companj' of hunters bears down on a savage lion javelin
in hand : he, struck with fear, yet fierce and glaring angrily,
"ives "round ; wrath and courage suffer him not to turn
his back, nor yet may he charge, though he fain would
do so, through the huntsmen and the spears. Not unlike
to him Turnus in doubt retraces his lingering footsteps,
while his heart boils with rage. Even then twice had he

338 THE ALNEID.

dashed on the thick of the foe, twice he drives their ranks
in huddled flight round the walls ; but the whole army
musters in a body from the camp, nor dares Saturnian Juno
supply him with strength to oppose them ; for Jove sent
down from the sky celestial Iris, with no gentle message for
his sister's ear, if Turnus retire not from the Teucrians' lofty
ramparts. So now the warrior cannot hold his own with
shield or sword ; such a deluge of darts overwhelms him.
Round his hollow temples the helmet echoes with ceaseless
ringing; the solid plates of brass give way beneath the
stones ; the horsehair crest is struck from his head ; his
shield's boss cannot stand the blows ; faster and faster they
hail their spears, the Trojans and fiery Mnestheus. Over all
his frame flows the sweat and trickles in a murky stream,
while breathe he cannot ; his sinking limbs are shaken witli
feeble panting. At last with headlong leap he plunged arms
and all into the river. Tiber with his yellow gulf received
the guest, upbore him on his buoyant waves, and washing olf
the stains of carnage, restored him in joy to his friends.

( 339 )

LOOK X

Meantime the palace of strong Olympus is thro^vIl open, and
the sire of gods and monarch of men summons a council to
the starry chamber, •whence, throned on high, he looks down
on the length and breadth of earth, the camp of the Dardans
and the people of Latium. They take their seats in tlie
double-gated mansion ; he himself opens the court : ' Mighty
denizens of heaven, wherefore is your judgment turned back-
ward, and whence such discord in your unkindly souls? I
had forbidden that Italy should meet the Teucrians in the
shock of war. What strife is this in defiance of my law 1
What terror has prompted these or those to draw the sword
and provoke the fight ? There shall come a rightful time for
combat — no need for you to hasten it — when fierce Carthage
one day shall launch on the hills of Rome mighty ruin and the
opening of Alpine barriers. Then will your rancours be free
to contend, your hands to plunder and ravage ; for the pre-
sent let be, and cheerfully ratify the peace that I have willed.'
Thus Jupiter in brief; but not brief was the answer of
golden Venus : ' 0 Father ! 0 eternal sovereignty of man and
nature ! for what else can there be which is left us to implore 1
Seest thou how the Rutulians insult 1 how Turnus is Avhirled
through the battle by his haughty coursers, borne on the flood-
tide of war ? No longer are the Teucrians safe even in the
shelter of their walls ; within the gates, amidst the very mounds
of the ramparts combat is waged, and the trenches overflow

340 THE mNEID.

with carnage, ^ueas is away in his ignorance. Wilt tliou
never let ns have respite from siege ? Once more the enemy
is stooping over the walls of our infant Troy, Avith a second
army ; once more Tydeus' son from his ^tolian Arpi is rising
against the Teucrians. Ay, my wounds, I ween, are yet in the
future, and I, thine own oiTspring, am delaying the destined
course of a mortal spear. If it is without your leave and
despite your will that the Trojans have won their way to Italy,
let them expiate the crime and withdraw from them thine aid :
hut if they have but followed those many oracles given by
powers above and powers underground, how can any now be
able to reverse thine ordinance and write anew the page of
fate? Why should I remirid thee of our fleet consumed on
Eryx' shore ? why of the monarch of the storms and his raving
winds stirred up from iEolia, or of Iris sent down from
the clouds ? Xow she is even rousing the ghosts below
— that portion of the world till then was untried — and
on a sudden AUecto is launched on upper air, and rages
through the Italian cities. It is not for empire that I am dis-
quieted ; for that we hoped in the past, while our star yet
shone : let them conquer whom thou wouldst have conquei-.
If there is no country on earth which thy relentless spouse
will allow the Teucrians, I adjure thee, father, by the smoking
ruins of Troy overthrown, let me send away Ascanius safe
from the war — let my grandson survive in life. ^neas,
indeed, may be tossed on uidinown waters, and follow such
course as chance may give him : 1dm let me have the power
to screen and withdraw from the horrors of battle. Amathus
is mine, and lofty Paphos, and high Cythera, and the mansion
of Idalia : there let him pass his days unwarlike and inglori-
ous. Let it be thy will that Carthage shall bow Ausonia
beneath her tyrannous sway ; the Tyrian cities need fear no
resistance from him. What has it advantaged him to have

BOOK X. 24-S5. 341

escaped the plague of war and fled through the hottest of the
Argive fires, to have drained to the dregs all those dangers by
sea and on broad earth, while the Teucrians are in quest of
Latium and a restored Pergamus 1 Give back, great sire, to
our wretched nation their Xanthus and their Simois, and let
the Teucrians enact once more the old tragedy of Ilium.' Then
)utspoke queenly Juno, goaded by fierce passion : ' AVliy force
you me to break my deep silence, and give forth in words my
buried grief? Your yEneas — was it any man or god that,
compelled him to draw the sword, and come down as a foe
on the Latian king? Grant that he went to Ital}' at the
instance of fate, at the impulse, in truth, of mad Cassandra ;
was it our counsel tliat he should leave his camp and place
his life at the mercy of the winds? that he should trust
the control of battle and his city to a boj' — should tamper
with Tyrrhenian loyalty and stir up a quiet nation ? What
god, what cruel tyranny of ours drove him thither to his
hurt ? is there a trace of Juno here, or of Iris sent down from
the clouds ? Ay, it is foul shame that the Italians should tlirow
a belt of flame round the infant Troy — that Turnus should
plant a foot on the soil of his fathers, Turnus, Avhose grand-
sire was Pilumnus, whose mother the goddess Venilia. How
call you it for the Trojans to invade Latiura with their
smoking torches, to put their yoke on a country that is none
of theirs, and harry away its plunder — to choose at will those
Avhose daughters they would wed, and drag the plighted bride
from the bosom — to bear suppliant tokens in the hand and
arm their vessels to the teeth 1 You have power to with-
draw ^neas from tlie hands of the Greeks, and ofl"er them
clouds and thin winds for the man they seek — power to
turn a fleet of ships into a bevy of Xymphs ; and is it utterly
monstrous for us to give the Rutulians a measure of aid
in return? ^neas is away in ignorance, and in ignorance

342 THE MNEID.

let him bide away. You have your Paphos, your Idalium,
your lofty Cythera : why meddle with a city brimming with
war and with ungentle hearts 1 Is it we that are labouring
to overturn from the foundation your feeble Phrygian fortunes ?
We ? or the gallant who brought Greece down on the wretched
Trojans 1 Wliat reason was there that Europe and Asia
should stand up to fight, and a league be broken by treachery ?
Did I lead your Dardan leman to take Sparta by storm 1 did
I put weapons in his hand, or fan the flame of war with the
gales of love ? Then had there been decency in your fears
for your friends ; now you are rising too late Avith unjust
complaints, and flinging idly the language of quarrel.'

Such was the appeal of Juno : and the whole body of im-
mortals murmured assent on this side or on that, like new-
bom gales when they murmur, caught in the forest, and roll
about mysterious sounds, disclosing to the sailor a coming
storm. Then begins the almighty sire, whose is the chief
sovereignty of the universe : at opening of his mouth the
lofty palace of the gods grows still, and earth shakes to her
foundations ; silent is the height of ether ; the Zephyrs are
sunk to rest, and Ocean subdues its waves to repose. ' Take
then to your hearts and engrave there these my words : since
it may not be that Ausonian and Teucrian should be united
by treaty, and your wranglings brook no conclusion, be each
man's fortune to-day what it may, be the span of each man's
hojie long or short, Trojan or Rutulian, I will show favour to
neither, whether it be by destiny that the Italian leaguer
encompasses the camp, or by Troy's baneful error and the
warnings of hostile intelligence. Nor leave I the Kutulians
free. Each man's own endeavours shall yield him the harvest
of labour or fortune. Jove, as king, is alike to all. Destiny
sliall find her own way.' By the river of his Stygian brother,
by the banks that seethe with pitch and are washed by tho

BOOK X. 85-146. 34'>

murky torreut, he nodded confirmation, and with his nod
made all Olympus tremble. So ended their debate. Then
from his golden throne rises Jove, and the immortals gathering
round him usher him to his chamber.

Meantime the Rutulians press round each and all of the
gates, eager to slaughter the soldiery and belt the ramparts
with flame. But -Eneas' army is hemmed within the
leaguered encampment, without hope of escape. In unavail-
ing wretchedness they stand guarding the turrets' height,
and form a thin circle round the walls. Asius son of
Imbrasus, and llicetaon's child Thymoetes, and the two
Assaraci, and Castor and aged Thymbris are their front
rank, by their side the two brethren of Sarpedon, Clarus
and Themon both, come from noble Lycia. There is one
carrying with the whole strain of his body a mighty rock,
no small portion of a mountain, Acmon of Lyrnessus, a
worthy peer of his father Clytius and his brother Menestheus.
Some repel the foe with javelins, some with stones : they
launch the firebrand, they fit the arrow to the string. In
the midst is he, Venus' most rightful care, the royal boy of
Dardany, his beauteous head uncovered : see him shine like
a jewel islanded in yellow gold, an ornament for neck or
head, or as gleams ivory set by artist skill in box- wood or
Orician terebinth : his flowing hair streams over a neck of
milky white and is gathered up by a ring of ductile gold.
Thou, too, Ismarus, wast seen by tribes of warriors dealing
wounds abroad and arming thy arrows with venom, gallant
branch of a Lydian house, from the land whose rich soil is
broken up by the husbandmen and washed by Pactolus' golden
stream. ]\Inestheus, too, was there, whom yesterday's triumph
over Turnus repulsed from the rampart exalts to the stars, and
Capys, who gives his name to Campania's mother city.

So they on this side and on that had waged all day the con-

344 THE .ENEID.

flict of stuLborn war ; and now at midnight /Ennas was
ploughing the main. For soon as, leaving Evander, he entered
tlie Etruscan camp, accosted the king, and told him of his
name and his race, for what he sues and what he offers,
explains what arms Mezentius musters on his side, and what
the excess of Turnus' violence, warns him how little faith man
can place in fortune, and seconds reasoning by entreaty, with-
out a moment's pause Tarchon combines his forces and strikes
a truce ; and at once, freed from the spell of destiny, the
Lydian race embarks according to heaven's ordinance, under
tlie charge of a foreign leader. First sails the vessel of ^neas,
Phrygian lions harnessed on the prow ; above them Ida spreads
her shade, of happiest augury to exiled Troy. There sits great
^'Eneas, brooding over the doubtful future of the war : and
Pallas, close cleaving to his left side, keeps questioning him,
now of the stars, the road-marks of the shadowv ni^rht, and
now of all that he has borne by land and by sea.

Now, ye goddesses, open wide your Helicon, and stir up the
]iowers of song, to tell us what the army now following ^neas
from the Tuscan shores, equipping its ships for adventure,
and sailing over the sea.

First comes Massicus, cleaving the waters in his brass-
sheathed Tiger : in his train a band of a thousand warriors,
who have left the walls of Clusium and the city Cosse ; their
weapons a sheaf of arrows, light quivers for the shoulder, and
u bow of deadly aim. "With him grim Abas : his whole band
ablaze Avith gleaming armour, his vessel shining with a gilded
Apollo. Populonia had sent him six hundred of her sons, all
versed in war : Ilva three hundred, an island rich in the
Chalybes' unexhausted mines. Third comes Asilas, the great
interpreter 'tween gods and men, at whose bidding are the
victims' entrails, the stars of the sky, the tongues of augurial
birds, and the flame of the prophetic lightning. With him

BOOK X. 146-208. 315

hurry a thousand in close array, bristling with, spears — sub-
jected to his command by the town of Pisa, which, sprung
from Alpheus, took root on Etruscan soil. After these is
Astur, fairest of form, Astur, proud of his steed and his
glancing armour. Three hundred follow him, all with one
loyal soul, from those who dwell in Caere and m the plains of
Minio, in ancient Pyrgi, and Gravisca's tainted air.
■^' I would not leave thee unsung, bravest chief of the Ligu-
rians, Cinyras, or Cupavo with scanty retinue, whose helmet
is surmounted by plumage of the swan : love was your joint
crime ; for love you wear the cognisance of your father's form.
For legend tells that Cycnus, all for grief over his darling
Phaethon, while in the poplar shade and the leafage of the
brotherloss sisters he keeps singing and consoling his sad
jiassion by the Muses' aid, drew over his form the soft plumage
of downy eld, mounting up from earth and sending his voice
before him to the stars. His son, with a band of martial peers
sailing at his side, propels with his oars the enormous Centaur :
tlie monster stands lowering over the water, and threatens the
billows with a huge rock from his toAvering eminence, as ho
])loughs the deep sea with the length of his keel.

Great Ocnus too is leading an army from the coasts of his
fathers, Ocnus, son of Manto the prophetess and the Etruscan
river, who bestowed on thee, Mantua, thy city walls and the
name of his mother, Mantua rich in ancestral glories : but not
all her sons of the same blood ; three races are there, and under
each race range four nations : herself the queen of the nations,
her strength from Etruscan blood. Hence, too, Mezentius
draws against his life five hundred unfriendly swords — Miu-
cius, child of Benacus, with his gray covering of reeds, ushers
into the deep their hostile bark.

On moves strong Aulestes, lashing the water as he rises
witli the stroke of a hundred oars : the sea spouts foam from

346 THE MNEID.

its upturned surface. His bearer is a huge Triton, wliose
shell strikes terror into the green billows : his shaggy front,
breasting the water, down to the side bespeaks the man ; the
belly ends in a sea monster : under the half bestial bosom the
wave froths and roars.

So many chosen chiefs were journeying in thirty vessels
to the succour of Troy, and ploughing with brazen beak the
expanse of brine.

And now the day had withdrawn from the sky, and gracious
Dian was trampling over the cope of heaven witli her night-
flying steeds : ^neas the while, for care refuses slumber to
his frame, is seated at his post, himself guiding the rudder
and trimming the sail — when lo ! in the middle of his voyage
he is met by a fair bevy of comrades of his own : the Nymphs
whom gracious Cybele had invested with the deity of the sea,
and changed from ships to goddesses, were swimming abreast
and cleaving the billow, a Xymph for each of the brazen
prows that erst had lined the shore. Far off they recognise
their king, and come dancing round him in state : Cymodoce,
their skilfullest in speech, swimming up behind, lays her right
hand on the stern, herself lifted breast high above the water,
while with her left she paddles in the noiseless wave. Then
thus she breaks on his wondering ear : ' "Wake you, ^neas,
seed of the gods 1 be wakeful still, and let the sail-ropes go.
We it is you see, pines of Ida from the sacred summit, Sea-
nymphs now, your sometime fleet. When the false Kutuliau
was hot at our backs with fire and sword, reluctantly we burst
your bonds, and are now in full quest of you over the sea. This
new shape the great mother gave us in her pity, and granted
us the state of goddesses and lives to lead beneath the water.
Meantime young Ascanius is hemmed in by rampart and
trench, with serried weapons all around him, and Latians
bristling with battle. Already the Arcadian horse mixed with

BOOK X. 208-266. 3r

the brave Etruscan has gained the appointed spot : to bar
their way with an intervening host and cut them off from the
camp is Turnus' fixed intent. Rise, and with the earliest
approach of dawn bid your allies be summoned to arms, and
take in hand that shield which the Fire-god himself made to
be invincible and bordered with a marge of gold. The morrow's
sun, if you will but give credence to my words, shall survey
mighty heaps of Rutulian carnage.' Her speech was done:
and as she parted she gave with her hand an impulse to the
lofty stern, well knowing the due measure of force : on it
speeds over the wave, fleeter than dart and wind-swift arrow
both. The rest in order mend their speed. Wondering he
pauses, the great Trojan of Anchises' line, yet cheers his soul
with the omen. Then, looking to the vault above, he prays
in brief : ' Gracious mother of the gods, lady of Ida, whose
joy is in Dindymus, and in turreted cities and harnessed lions
at thy bridle-rein, be thou now to me the controller of the
fight, do thou bring the presage nigh, and walk beside the
Phrygians, mighty goddess, with favouring step.' Thus much
he said : and meanwhile day was returning at speed, with
its light grown to full strength, and night had vanished
before it.

First he gives orders to his comrades to obey the heaveidy
token, and nerve their souls for combat, and make ready
for the fight. And now at last from his station on the
tall stern he has the Teucrians and his camp in view,
when on the instant his blazing shield is raised high on
his left arm. Up goes a shout to heaven from the Dardans
on their ramparts ; the gleam of hope quickens wrath to
fury ; they hurl a shower of javelins : even as amid dark
clouds cranes from Strymon give token, sweeping sonor-
ously over the sky, and flying from the southern gale
with sequacious clamour. But the Rutulian king and the

348 THE JEN EI D.

Ausonian generals wonder at the sight, till, looking l>ack,
they behold the stems bearing to the shore, and the whole
water floating on with vessels. There is a blaze on that
helmet's summit, and,, from the crest on high streams tho
flame, and the shield's golden boss disgorges mighty fires, even
as when on a clear night blood-hued comets glare with gloomy
red, or as the Sirian blaze, that harbinger of drought and
sickness to weak mortality, breaks into birth and saddens
heaven with its ill-boding rays.

Yet pause was none in bold Turnus' confidence to forestall
the landing-place, and beat off the comers from the shore.
His words are ready at the moment to encourage and upbraid :
' See here the occasion you longed for, to break through them
at the sword's point. A brave man's hand is the War god's
chosen seat. IS[ow let each remember wife and home, recall
the mighty deeds that made your fathers great. Let us meet
them at once at the water's edge, while they are in the hurry
of landing, and the foot falters in its first tread on shore.
Valour has Fortune for its friend,' So saying, he ponders
Avith himself whom to lead to the attack, and to whom he
may trust the leaguer of the walls.

MeanAvhile ^neas is landing his comrades from the tall
ship-sides by help of bridges. Many of them watch for the
ebb of the failing sea, and venture a leap among the shallows ;
others resort to the oars. Tarchon, spying out a place on the
beach where the waters seethe not nor tlie broken billows
roar, but ocean without let glides gently up the shore as the
tide advances, suddenly turns his prows thither, and exhorts
liis crew : ' Now, ye chosen band, ply your stout oars, lift the
vessels and carry them home : cleave with your beaks this
land that hates you ; let the keel plough its own furrow. Even
from shipwreck in a roadstead like this I would not shrink,
could I once get hold of the soil.' Tarchon having thus said,

BOOK X. 266-332. 349

liis crew rise on tlieir oars and bear down on the Latian plains
with vessels all foam, till the beaks have gained the dry land,
and every keel has come scatheless to its rest. Not so thy
ship, Tarchon : for while dashed on a sandbank it totters on
the unequal ridge, poised in suspense awhile, and buffeting the
waves, its sides give M-ay, and its men are set down in the
midst of the water ; broken oars and floating benches entangle
them, and their feet are carried back by the ebb of the wave.

No sluggish delay holds Turnus from his work : with fiery
speed he sweeps his whole army against the Teucrians, and
plants them in the foe's face on the shore. The clarions
sound ^ first dashed ^neas on the rustic ranks, a presage of
the fight's fortune, and disarrayed the Latians, slaying Theron,
who in his giant strength is assailing vEneas : piercing through
quilted brass and tunic stiff with gold the sword devours his
ung'uarded side. Next he strikes Lycus, who was cut from
the womb of his dead mother and consecrated to thee, Apollo,
because his baby life had been suffered to scape the peril of
the steel. Hard by, as iron Cisseus and gigantic Gyas were
laying low his host with their clubs, he casts them down in
death : nought availed them ; the weapons of Hercules or
strong hands to wield them, or Melampus their sire, Alcides'
constant folloAver, long as earth found for him those grievous
tasks. See there, as Pharus is hurling forth words without
deeds, he flings at him his javelin and plants it in the bawler's
mouth. Thou, too, Cydon, while following with ill-starred
quest the blooming Clytius, thy latest joy, hadst lain stretched
on the ground by the Dardan hand, a piteous spectacle, at rest
from the passions that were ever in thy heart ; but thy
brethren met the foe in close band, the progeny of Phorcus :
seven their number, seven the darts they throw ; some rebound
idly from shield and helm, some as they grazed the frame
were turned aside by Venus' gentle power. Quick spoke

330 THE ^NEID.

^neas to true Achates : * Give me store of weapons ; not one
shall my hand hurl in vain against the Rutulians, of all that
have quivered in Grecian flesh on the plains of Troy.' With
that he seizes his mighty spear and launches it : flying on it
crashes through the brass of Meeon's shield and rends breast-
plate and breast at once. Swift comes his brother Alcanor and
props with his hand the falling man : piercing the arm the
spear flies onward and holds its bloody course, and the dying
hand dangles by the sinews from the shoulder-blade. Then
Numitor, snatching the javelin from his brother's body, assails
.^neas ; yet it might not lodge in the enemy's front, but just
grazed the thigh of mighty Achates.

Now comes Clausus of Cures in the pride of his youthful
frame, and strikes Dryops from a distance under the chin
Avith the strong impact of his stark spear, and piercing his
throat, robs him even as he speaks of life and breath alike :
the wounded man strikes the earth with his forehead and
vomits from his lips clotted blood. Three, too, from Thrace,
of Boreas' noblest lineage, and three sent to battle by Idas
their sire and Ismarus their country, he lays low by this
chance or that. To his side runs Halesus and the Auruncan
bands ; comes to his aid, too, the seed of Neptune, steed-
famed Messapus. Now these, now those, strain to win the
ground : the struggle is on Ausonia's very threshold. As in
the spacious heaven jarring winds meet in battle, alike in spirit
and in strength, winds, storm-clouds, and ocean, neither yields
to the other : long doubtful hangs the fight ; all stand in
death-grips, front to front : even such the meeting of the army
of Troy and the army of Latium : foot is set close to foot, and
man massed with man.

But in another part of the field, where a torrent had scat-
tered wide whirling stones and trees uprooted from its banks,
6oon as Pallas saw his Arcadians, unused to wage war on foot,

BOOK X. 332-395- 35 1

flying before tlie cliase of Latium, in that the cragginess of
the soil had driven them to discard their steeds, he tries
the one remedy in sore distress, and now with prayers, now
with bitter speeches, inflames their valour : ' Whither fly ye,
mates 1 By your gallant deeds I conjure you — by your chief
Evander's name and victories won at his bidding — by my
own promise, now shooting up in rivalry with my father's
glory — trust not to your feet. It is the sword that must hew
us a way through the foe. Wliere yonder host of men
presses in thickest mass is the path by which our noble
country is calling you and your general Pallas back to her
arms. No deities sit heavy on us : by a mortal foe we are
pressed, mortals ourselves : we have as many lives, as many
hands as they. Lo there ! the sea hems us in with mighty
ocean-barrier ; earth is closed to our flight : shall the sea or
Troy be our goal 1 ' Tliis said, he daslies at the midst of the
hostile throng. The first that meets him is Lagus, brouglit
to the spot by fates unkind; him, while tugging a stone
of enormous weight, he pierces with his whirled javelin,
just where the spine running down the back was parting
the ribs, and recovers the weapon from its lodgment among
the bones. Nor can Hisbo surprise him in the fact, spite
of his hopes ; for Pallas catches him rushing on in blind fury
for the pain of his comrade's death, and buries the sword in
his distended lungs. Next his blow lights on Sthenelus, and
Anchemolus of Khoetus' ancient line, who dared pollute his
stepdame's couch. You, too, twin brethren, fell on those
Kutulian plains, Larides and Thymber, Daucus' resemblant
offspring, undistinguished even by your kin, a sweet per-
plexity to those who bore you : but now Pallas has marked
you with a cruel difi"erence ; for you, poor Thymber, have
your head shorn off by the Evandrian sword ; your hand,
Larides, severed from the arm, is looking in vain for you its

3S2 THE /ENEID.

master; tlic fin<^er?, half alive, are quivering yet and closing
again on the steel.

Arcadia's sons, stung by their chief's rebuke and gazing on
his glorious deeds, rush on the foe, strong in the armour
of mingled rage and shame. Then Pallas strikes through
Rhoetus as he flies past him on his car. So much sjmce
and respite from his end did Ilus gain ; for 'twas at Ilus he had
launched from the distance his stalwart spear : Elicetus comes
between and catches it, flying from thee, noble Teuthras, and
Tyres thy brother ; and tumbled from his car he beats with
his dying heel the Rutulian plains. Even as when the winds
have risen at his wish on a summer's day, a shepherd lets
loose his scattered flames among the woods, in a moment
catching all that comes between, the Fire-god's army in one
bristling line stretches over the broad plains : he from his
seat beholds the triumphant blaze with a conqueror's pride :
even so the valour of thy friends musters from all sides on
one point to aid thee, Pallas. But Halesus, that fiery warrior,
moves against their opposing ranks, gathering himself up into
his arms. Ladon he massacres, and Pheres, and Demodocus :
Strymonius' right hand, raised against his throat, he lops away
witli his gleaming sword ; with a stone he strikes the front
of Thoas, and has crushed the bones mixed with gory brain.
Halesus had been hidden in the woods by his prophetic sire ;
when the old man closed his whitening eyes in death, the
Fates claimed their victim, and devoted him to Evander's
darts. And now Pallas aims at him, after these words of
prayer : ' Grant, Father Tiber, to the flying steel poised in
my hand a prosperous passage through Halesus' hardy breast ;
thine oak shall have his arms and his warrior spoils.' Tlic
god gave ear : Avhile Halesus shielded Imaon, he gives his
own breast in evil hour unarmed to the Arcadian lance.

But Lausus, himself a mighty portion of the war, suA'crs

LOOK X. 39M56- 353

not Ills troops to be dismayed by the hero's dreadful carnage :
first lie slays Abas, -who had met him front to front, the break-
water and barrier of fight. Down go the sons of Arcadia,
down go the Etruscans, and ye, too, Teucrians, whose frames
Greece could not destroy. The armies clash, their leaders
and their powers the same. The rear ranks close up the
battle ; nor weapon nor hand can be moved for the crowd.
Here is Pallas pushing and pressing, there Lausus over against
him : their years scarcely differ ; each has a comely form ; but
Fortune had already written that neither should return to his
home. Yet were they not suffered to meet man to man by
great Olympus' lord : each has his fate assigned him ere long
at the hand of a mightier enemy.

Turnus meanwhile is warned by his gracious sister to come
to Lausus' aid ; and witli his flying car lie cleaves the inter-
vening ranks. Soon as he met his comrades' eye : ' You
may rest from battle now ; I alone am coming against Pallas.
Pallas is my due, and mine alone ; would that his sire were
here to see us fight.' lie said ; and his friends retired from
the interdicted space. But as the Rutulians withdraw, the
young warrior, marvelling at the haughty command, gazes
astonished on Turnus, rolls his eyes over that giant frame, and
sweeps the whole man from afar with fiery glance, and with
words like these meets the Avords of the monarch : ' I shall
soon be famous either for kingly trophies won or for an illus-
trious death ; my sire is equal to either event ; a truce to
menace.' This said, he marches into the middle space ; while
the Arcadians' blood chills and curdles about their hearts.
Down from his car leaps Turnus, and addresses himself to
fight on foot. And as when a lion has seen from a high
watch-tower a bull standing at distance in the field and medi-
tating fight, he flies to the spot, even thus looks Turnus as ha
bounds along.

354 THE JENEID.

Soon as he judged his foe would be within reach of his
spear-throw, Pallas begins the combat, in hope that Fortune
may help the venture of unequal powers, and utters these
words to the mighty heaven : ' By my sire's hospitality
and the board where thou satest as a stranger, I pray
thee, Alcides, stand by me in my great endeavour. Let
Turnus see me strip the bloody arms from his dying frame,
and may his glazing eyes endure the sight of a conqueror.'
Alcides heard the youth, and stifled a heavy groan deep down
in his breast, and shed forth unavailing tears. Then the*
Almighty Father bespeaks his son with kindly words : ' Each
has his fixed day : short and irretrievable is the span of all
men ; but to propagate glory by great deeds, this is what
worth can do. Think of those many sons of gods who fell
beneath Troy's lofty walls : among whom died even Sarpedon,
my own offspring. For Turnus, too, the call of his destiny
lias gone forth, and he has reached the term of his allotted
days.' So he speaks, and turns away liis eyes from the
Rutulian plain.

Eut Pallas with a mighty effort sends forth his spear,
iind plucks from the hollow scabbard his flashing sword. On
flies the weapon, strikes where the margin of the harness
rises toward the shoulder, and forcing its way through the
buckler's edge, at last even grazed the mighty frame of Turnus.
Then Turnus, long poising his beam with its point of sharp
steel, hurls it at Pallas, with these words : ' See whether our
weapon bo not the keener.' So he : "while cleaving those
many plates of iron and brass, spite of the bull-hides wound
oft and oft about, the point strikes through the shield's midst
with quivering impact, and pierces the corselet's barrier and
the mighty breast beyond. In vain the youth tears the
reeking dart from the wound : as it parts, blood and life
follow on its track. He falls forward on his wound : his

BOOK X. 457-519- 355

arms resound upon him, and with liis bloody jaws in death he
bites the hostile earth. Standing over him, Turnus began :
' Men of Arcady, take heed and carry my words to Evander : I
send back Pallas handled as his sire deserves. If there be any
honour in a tomb, any solace in burial, let him take it freely ;
his welcome of iEneas will be costly notwithstanding.' Then
with his left foot as he spoke, he trod on the dead, tearing
away the belt's huge weight and the crime thereon engraved :
that band of youths slain foully all on one wedding night,
and the chambers dabbled with blood : Clonus Eurytides had
chased it on the broad field of gold : and now Turnus triumphs
in the prize, and exults in his winning. Blind are the eyes
of man's soul to destiny and doom to be, nor knows it to
respect the limit, when upborne by prosperous fortune !
Turnus shall see the day when he will fain have paid a high
price for Pallas unharmed, when he will hate the spoils and
the hour he won them ! But Pallas' followers, with many a
groan and tear, are bearing off their chief on his shield in
long procession. Oh, vision of sorrow and great glory, soon
to meet thy father's eye ! this day first gave thee to battle,
this day withdraws the gift, yet vast are the heaps thou leavest
of Eutulian carnage !

And now not the mere rumour of a blow so dreadful, but
surer intelligence flies to iEneas, that his army is but a hand-
breadth's remove from death — that it is high time to succour
the routed Teucrians. With his sword he mows down all
that crosses him, and all on fire hews a broad pathway through
the ranks with the steel, seeking thee, Turnus, fresh flushed
with slaughter. Pallas, Evander, tlie whole scene stands be-
fore his eyes — the board where he had first sate as a stranger,
the outstretched hands of fellowship. At once he takes alive
four youths born of Sulmo, and other four reared by Ufens,
that he may offer them as victims to the dead, and sprinkle

336 THE JENEID.

the funeral flame with tlieir captive gore. Next he hail
levelled his spear from afar at Magus, Magus deftly runs
beneath, while the quivering spear flies over his head, and
clasping the enemy's knees, utters these words of suppliance :
* By your dead father's soul, and the dawning promise of
lulus, I pray you spare my poor life for my son and my sire.
I have a lofty palace : deep in its vaults lie talents of chased
silver ; masses of gold are mine, wrought and unwrought
both. The victory of Troy hangs not on my fortunes, nor
can a single life make difference so great.' He spoke, and
.^neas thus makes reply : ' Those many talents you name of
silver and gold, keep them for your sons. Turnus was the
first to put an end to such trading usages of war at the moment
when he slew Pallas. My sire Anchises' ghost, and my son
lulus, speak their thoughts through me.' Tliis said, with
his left hand he grasps the helmet and drives his sword
hilt-deep through the suppliant's back-drawn neck. Hard by
was Hsemonides, priest of Phoebus and Trivia, his temples
wreathed with the fillet's sacred band, glittering all over with
gay raiment and goodly armour. Him he meets, drives over
the plain, stands over him fallen, sacrifices the victim, and
whelms him in a mighty shade ; the arms are stripped and
carried off on Serestus' shoulders, a trophy to thee, royal
Gradivus. The ranks are rallied by Cseculus, scion of Vulcan's
stock, and Umbro, who conies from the Volscian hills. The
Dardan chief puts forth his rage against them. Already had he
mowed down with his sword Anxur's left hand and the whole orb
of the shield he bore — that foe, I ween, had uttered a haughty
boast, and deemed that his hand would second his ton^ie,
and was swelling in spirit to the stars, with an assured hope
of gray hairs and length of days — when Tarquitiis, in the
pride of gleaming armour, borne by the nymph Dryope to
woodland Paunus, crossed his fiery path. Drawing back

BOOK X. 520-5S4. 357

his spear, he hampers the corselet and the buckler's weighty
mass ; then he sweeps to the ground the head, as the lips
were vainly praying and essaying to say a thousand things,
and dashing before him the reeking trunk, utters thus the
fierceness of his heart : * Lie there, doughty warrior ! never
shall your tender mother give you burial, or pile your father's
tomb above your limbs ; no, you will be left to savage birds,
or the river will carry you Avhelraed by its eddies, and
hungry fish will lick your wounds.' Xext he liunts down
Antseus and Lucas, of Turnus' first rank, and gallant Xuma,
and yellow Gamers, son of noble Yolscens, who was wealthiest
in land of Ausonia's children, and reigned over voiceless
Amyclse. Even as JEgxon, who, fable tells, hail a hundred
arms and a hundred hands, and flashed fire through fifty
mouths from the depths of fifty bosoms, ^\•hat time against
Jove's lightning he thundered on fifty strong shields, and
drew forth fifty sharp swords, so iEneas slakes his victo-
rious fury the whole field over, Avhen once his blade had
grown warm with blood. See ! he is advancing against
!Niplia;us' four harnessed steeds, and setting his breast against
theirs. At once they, soon as they saw his lofty stride and
his fierce gestures, turn round afl'righted, and, rushing back-
Avard, unseat their master and hurry the car to the beack
Meanwhile Lucagus forces his way into the midst, drawn by
two white horses, with Liger his brother; but the brother
guides the steeds with the rein, while Lucagus sweeps fiercely
round his naked sword. ^Eneas brooked not the fury of
Uieir fiery onset, but rushed against them, and stood fronting
ihem in his giant bulk Avith tlireatening spear. To him
cried Liger : ' These are not Diomede's steeds you see, nor
this Achilles' chariot, nor are these the Phrygian plains ; your
warfare and your life shall end here on Italian ground.' So
fly abroad the random words of frantic Liger. The chief of

35S THE mNEID.

Troy seeks not to meet him with words, but hurls his javelin
at the foe. Even as Lucagus, bending forward over the
stroke, pricked on his horses with the steel, and advancing
his left foot prepares himself for fight, the spear pierces the
last margin of the radiant shield and enters the groin at the
left : down he falls from the car and wallows in death on the
plain ; while good ^neas bespeaks him Avith words of gall :
* So, Lucagus, it is no craven flight of your steeds that has
played your car false ; no empty shadow cast by the foe has
turned them ; no, it is you that spring down from the wheels,
and leave the horses to their fate.' With these words he
laid hold of the bridles, while the wretched brother, gliding
down from the car, was stretching his recreant hands: 'Oh,
by yourself, by the parents that gave such greatness birth,
spare this poor life, brave hero of Troy, and let prayer find
compassion.' ^neas cut short his entreaties: 'Not sucli
were your words a moment ago ; die, and forsake not your
brother, as brother should : ' and cleaving the bosom with
his sword, he laid bare the seat of breath. Such were the
deaths that the Dardan leader dealt about the plains, storm-
ing along like torrent wave or murky tempest. At length
the prisoners burst forth and leave their camp, the young
Ascanius and the soldiery beleaguered in vain.

Jupiter meanwhile first addresses Juno : ' Sister mine and
sweetest wife in one, Venus it is, even as thou didst suppose
—for thy judgment is never at fault — that upholds the
powers of the Trojans, not the warriors' own keen right hand
and the courageous soul that braves every peril.' Juno
returned, meekly : ' Why, my fairest lord, dost thou vex a
sick spirit that quails before thy cruel speeches ? Had my
love the force it once had, and which should still be its
own, this at least thou wouldst not deny me, almighty as
thou art, the power to withdraw Turnus from the fight

BOOK X. 5S4-647. 359

and preserve liim in safety for Daunus his father. As it is,
let him perish, and ghit the Teucrian vengeance with his
righteous blood. Yet he draws his name from our lineage,
and Pilumnus is his grandsire's grandsire ; and often has thy
temple been loaded with store of olferings from his bounteous
liaiid.' To whom, in brief reply, the lord of skiey Olympus :
' If thy prayer for the doomed youth is respite and breathing--
space from present death, and so thou readest my will, bear
thou Turnus away in flight, and snatch liim from the destiny
that presses on his heels. Thus far is room for compliance.
T>ut if any deeper favour be hidden under these prayers of
thine, and thou deemest that the war's whole course can be
moved or changed, thou art nursing an empty hope.' Juno
answered with tears : ' What if thy heart were to grant what
thy tongue grudges, and Turnus' life were pledged to con-
tinue? As it is, a heavy doom hangs over his guiltless head,
or I am void of truth and wandering in delusion. But oh,
that I might rather be the sport of lying terrors, and thou,
who canst, lead back thy counsels by a better road ! '

This said, from the lofty sky she shot forthwith, driving

storm before her through the air and girt with the rain-cloud,

and sought the army of Ilium and the camp of Laurentum.

Then, as goddesses may, she fashions a thin, strengthless

shadow of hollow cloud in the likeness of iEneas, a marvel to

the eyes, accoutres it with Dardan weapons, and counterfeits

the shield and the crest of the god-like head, gives it empty

words and tones without soul, and renders to the life the step

and the gait : even as the shapes that are said to flit when

death is past, or the dreams that mock the sense of slumber.

So the phantom strides triumphant in the van, goading the

enemy with brandished weapons and defiant speech. Turnus

comes on, and hurls from far his hurtling spear ; it turns its

back and retires. Then, when Turnus thought ^neas flying

2,6o THE MNEID.

in retreat, and snatched in the vehemence of his soul at the
empty hope : ' Wliither so fast, JEneas 1 ' cries he : ' nay,
leave not your promised bridal ; this hand shall give you the
soil you have sought for the ocean over.' So with loud shouts
lie follows, waving his drawn sword, nor sees that the winds
are hearing off his triumph. It chanced that a ship was
standing moored to the edge of a lofty rock, its ladder let
down, its bridge ready to cross — the ship which had carried
king Osinius from the borders of Clusium. Hither, as in
haste, the semblance of the flying ^neas plunged for shelter.
Turnus follows as fast, bounds over all obstacles, and springs
across the high-raised bridge. Scarce had lie touched the
prow when Saturn's daughter breaks the mooring and sweeps
the sundered ship along the receding flood. .5^ueas mean-
while is claiming the combat with his absent foe, and send-
ing down to death many a warrior frame that crosses his way.
Then the airy phantom seeks shelter no longer, but soaring
aloft blends with the murky atmosphere, while Turnus is borne
by the wind down the middle of the tide. Ignorant of the
event, and unthankful for escape, he looks back, his hands
and his voice addressed to the sky: 'Almighty sire! hast
thou judged me worthy of an infliction like this, and sentenced
me to this depth of suiFeringI Whither am I bound? whence
have I come ? what is this flight that is bearing me home, and
what does it make of me? Shall I look again on Laurentuin's
camp and city 1 what of that warrior troop who followed me
and my standard ? Are they not those whom I left — horror
to tell — all of them in the jaws of a cruel death — whom I
now see scattered in rout, and hear their groans as they fall ?
What can I do ? what lowest depth of earth will yawn for me ?
Nay, do you, ye winds, have compassion — on reef, on rock — ■
see, it is I, Turnus, who am fain to plead — dash me this vessel,
and lodge it on the sandbank's ruthless shoal, where none that

BOOK X. 64^-712. 361

know ray sLame, Rutuli or rumour, may find me cut ! ' So
speaking, he sways in spirit to this side and to that : should
lie for disgrace so foul impale his frenzied breast on the sword's
l)oint, and drive the stark blade through his ribs, or fling
himself into the midst of the waves, and make by swimming
for the winding shore, and place himself again among the
Teucrian swords 1 Thrice he essayed either way : thrice
mighty Juno kept him l)ack, and of her great pity withheld
the youth from action. On he flies, ploughing the deep with
wave and tide to speed him, and is borne safely to the ancient
town of Daunus his sire.

Prompted meanwhile by Jove, Mezentius, all on fire, takes
up the war, and charges the triumphant Teucrians. The
Tyrrhene host flocks to the spot, bending all their fury, all
their showering darts on one, one only man. Even as a rock
Avhich juts into the mighty deep, exposed to the rage of the
wind and braving the sea, bears all the violence and menace
of heaven and ocean, itself xmshaken, he stands unmoved ;
now he lays low Hebrus, Dolichaon's child, and with him
Latagus and craven Palmus : Latagus he strikes on the face
and front with a stone, a hill's enormous fragment, Palmus
he suffers to roll ham-strung in his cowardice ; their harness
he gives to Lausus to wear on his shoulders, their crests to
adorn his head. Euanthes, too, the Phrygian, and Mimas,
Paris' playmate, borne by Theano to Amycus his sire, the self-
same night when Cisseus' royal daughter, teeming with a fire-
brand, gave birth to Paris; he sleeps beneath his father's
walls, while j\Iimas has his rest on Laurentum's unknown
shore. Like as the mighty boar driven by fangs of hounds
from mountain heights, the boar whom pine-crowned Vesulus
or Laurentum's pool shelters these many years, pastured 011
the reedy jungle, soon as he finds himself among the nets,
stands , a t_ bay, snorting with fury and bristling his back;
none has the courage to flame fortli and come near him ; at

362 THE ALNEID.

safe distance they press him with their darts and their erics ;
even so of them who hate Mezentius with a righteous hate,
none has the heart to face him with drawn steel ; with missiles
and deafening shouts they assail him from afar ; wliile he,
undaunted, is pausing now here, now there, gnashing his
teeth, and shakes off the javelins from his buckler's hide.
There was one Acron from Cory thus' ancient borders, a
Grecian wight, who had fled forth leaving his nuptials yet
to celebrate ; him, when Mezentius saw at distance scattering
the intervening ranks, in pride of crimson plumage and the
purple of his plighted bride, even as oft a famished lion
ranging through high-built stalls — for frantic hunger is his
prompter — if he chance to mark a flying goat or towering-
antlered deer, grins with huge delight, sets up his mane, and
hangs over the rent flesh, while loathly blood laves his
insatiate jaws — so joyfully springs Mezentius on the foe's
clustering mass. Down goes ill-starred Acron, spurns the
blackened ground in the pangs of death, and dyes with blood
the broken spear. Nor did the chief deign to strike down
Orodes as he fled, or deal from a spear-throw a wound unseen :
full in front he meets him, and engages him as man should
man, prevailing not by guile but by sheer force of steel.
Then with foot and lance planted on the back-flung body :
' See, gallants, a bulwark of tlie war has fallen in tall Orodes,'
and his comrades shout in unison, taking up tlie triumphal
paean. The dying man returns : ' Wlioever thou art, thy
victorious boasting shall not bo long or unavenged ; far thee,
too, a like fate is watcliiiig, and thou shalt soon lie on these
self-same fields.' Mezentius answers, with hate mantling in liis
smile : ' Die now. The sire of gods and king of men shall make
his account with me.' So saying, he drew forth the spear from
the body : the heavy rest of iron slumber settles down on its
eyes, and their beams are curtained in everlasting night.

Caedicus slaughters Alcathous, Sacrator Hydaspes, Rapo

BOOK X. 7 \ 1-779' 3f'3

kills Parthenius and Orses of iron frame, Mcssapus slays
Clonius and Ericetes, Lycaon's son, that grovelling on the
ground by a fall from his unbridled steed, this encountered
foot to foot. Prancing forward came Agis of Lycia; but
Valerus, no unworthy heir of his grandsire's prowess, hurls
him down : Thronius falls by Salius, and Salius by Nealces,
hero of the javelin and the shaft that surprises from far.

And now the War-god's heavy hand was dealing out to
each equal measures of agony and carnage ; alike they were
slaying, alike falling dead, victors and vanquished by turns,
flight unthought of both by these and by those. The gods in
Jove's palace look pityingly on the idle rage of the warring
hosts — alas, that death-doomed men should suffer so terribly !
Here Venus sits spectator, there over against her Saturnian
Juno. Tisiphone, ashy pale, is raving among thousands down
below. But see ! Mezentius, shaking his giant spear, is strid-
ing into the field, an angry presence. Think of the stature of
Orion, as he overtops the billows with his shoulders, when he
stalks on foot through the very heart of Nereus' mighty depths
that part before him, or as carrying an aged ash in triumph
from the hill-top he plants his tread on the ground, and hides
his head among the clouds above : thus it is that IMezentius
in enormous bulk shoulders his way. /Eneas spies him along
the length of the battle, and makes haste to march against
him. He abides undismayed, waiting for his gallant foe, and
stands like column on its base ; then, measuring with his eye
the distance that may suffice for his spear, ' Now let my right
hand, the god of my worship, and the missile dart I am
poising, vouchsafe their aid ! I vow that you, my Lausus,
clad in spoils torn from yonder robber's carcase, shall stand in
your own person the trophy of iEneas.' He said, and threw
from far his hurtling lance : flying onward, it glances aside
from the shield, and strikes in the distance noble Antores
twixt side and flank, Antores, comrade of Hercules, Avho, sent

364 THE .^NEID.

from Argos had cloven to Evander's fortunes and sat him
down in an Italian home. Now he falls, ill-fated, by a
"wound meant for other, and gazes on the sky, and dreams in
death of his darling Argos. Then good ^neas hurls his
spear; through the holloAV disk with its triple plating of brass,
throui^h the folds of linen and the texture wherein three bulls
joined, it won its way and lodged low down in the groin, but
its force held not on. In a moment -^neas, gladdened by
the sight of the Tuscan's blood, plucks his sword from his
thigh and presses hotly on his unnerved foe.

Soon as Lausus saw, he gave a heavy groan of tenderness
for the sire he loved, and tears trickled down his face. And
liere, gallant youth, neither the cruel chance of thy death,
nor thy glorious deeds, if antiquity may gain credence for so
great a sacrifice, nor thine own most worthy memory shall be
unsung through fault of mine. The father, dragging back
his foot, disabled and entangled, was quitting the field, his
enemy's spearshaft trailing from his buckler. Forth dashed
the youth and mingled in the duel, and even as ^neas was
rising with hand and body and bringing down a blow from
above, met the shock of the sword, and gave the swordsman
pause ; his comrades second him with a mighty shout, covering
the father's retreat as sheltered by his son's shield he with-
draws from the fray, hurl a rain of darts, and strive with
distant missiles to dislodge the foe. ^neas glows with anger,
and keeps within the covert of his arms. Even as on a time
when storm-clouds sweep down in a burst of hail, every
ploughman, every husbandman has fled scattering from the
field, and the traveller lies hid in a stronghold of safety, either
some river bank or vault of lofty rock, while the rain is pelt-
ing on the lands, in the hope that Avith the returning sun they
may task the day once more; even so, stormed on by javelins
from all sides, ^neas endures the thunder-cloud of war till all
its artillery be spent, and keeps chiding Lausus and threaten-

BOOK X. 779-841. 365

ing Lausus : * Whitlier are you rusliing on your death, with
aims beyond your strength ? Your duteous heart blinds your
reckless valour.' Yet he bates not a jot in his frantic
onslaught ; and now the Dardan leader's wrath surges into
fury, and the fatal sisters are gathering up Lausus' last thread,
for iEneas drives his forceful blade sheer through the youth's
body, and buries it wholly within him. Pierced is the shield
by the edge, the light armour he carried so threateningly, and
the tunic embroidered by his mother with delicate golden
thread, and his bosom is deluged with blood ; and anon the
life flits through the air regretfully to the shades and tho-
body is left tenantless. But when the son of Anchises saw
the look and countenance of the dying — the countenance
with its strange and varying hues of pallor — heavily he groaned
for pity and stretched forth his hand, and the portraiture of
filial love stood before his soul. ' What now, hapless boy,
what shall the good i?<2nea3 give you worthy of your merit
and of a heart like yours? Let the arms wherein you took
pride be your own still ; yourself I restore to the company
of your ancestors, their shades and their ashes, if that bo
aught to you now. This at least, ill-starred as you are, shall
solace the sadness of your death : it is great iEneas' hand that
brincrs vou low.' Then without more ado he chides the slack-
ness of his comrades, and lifts their young chief from the earth,
as he lay dabbling his trim locks with gore.

Meanwhile tlie father at the wave of Tiber's flood was
stanching his wounds with water, and giving ease to his frame,
leaning on a tree's trunk. His brazen helmet is hanging from
a distant bough, and his heavy arms are resting on the mead.
Round him stand his bravest warriors : he, sick and panting,
is relieving his neck, while his flowing beard scatters over his
bosom : many a question asks he about Lausus, many a mes-
senger he sends to call him ofi" and convey to him the charge
of his grieving sire. But Lausus the while was being carried

366 THE ^NEID.

breathless on his sliield by a train of weeping comrades, a mighty
spirit quelled by a mighty wound. The distant groan told ita
tale to that ill-boding heart. He defdes his gray hairs with a
shower of dust, stretches his two palms to heaven, and clings
to the body. ' My son ! and Avas I enthralled by so strong a
love of life as to suffer you, mine own offspring, to meet the
foeinan's hand in my stead ? Are these your wounds preserving
your sire 1 is he living through your death 1 Alas ! now at
length I know the misery of banishment ! now the iron is
driven home ! Ay, it was I, my son, that stained your name
with guilt, driven by the hate I gendered from the throne and
realm of my father ! Eetribution was due to my country and
to my subjects' wrath : would that I had let out my forfeit life
through all the death-wounds they aimed ! And now I live
on, nor as yet leave daylight and humankind — but leave
them I will.' So saying, he raises himself on his halting
thigh, and though the deep wound makes his strength flag,
calls for his war-horse with no downcast mien. This was ever
his glory and his solace : this still carried him victorious from
every battle-field. He addresses the grieving creature and
bespeaks it thus : ' Long, Rhsebus, have we twain lived, if
auglit be long to those who must die. To-day you shall either
bear in victory the bloody spoils and head of ^Eneas yonder,
and join with me to avenge my Lausus' sufferings, or if our
force suffice not to clear the way, we will lie down together in
death : for never, I ween, my gallant one, will you stoop to a
stranger's bidding and endure a Teucrian lord.' He said,
and mounting on its back settled his limbs as he was
Avont, and charged his two hands with pointed javelins, his
head shining with brass and shaggy with horse-hair crest. So
be bounded into the midst — his heart glowing at once with
n)ighty shame, madness and agony commingled. Then with
a loud voice he thrice called on ^neas : ay, and ^neas knew
it, and prays in ecstasy : ' May the great father of the gods,

BOOK .Y 841-908. 367

may royal Apollo grant that you come to the encounter ! ' So
much said, he marches to meet him with brandished spear.
The other replies : ' "\Miy terrify me, fellest of foes, now you
have robbed me of my son ? this was the only way by whicli
you could woi'k my ruin. I fear not deatli, nor give quarter to
any deity. Enough : I am coming to die, and send you this
my present first.' He said, and flung a javelin at his enemy :
then he sends another and another to its mark, wheeling round
in a vast ring : but the golden shield bides the blow. Thrci
times, wheeling from right to left, he rode round the foe that
faced him, flinging darts from his hand : three times the hero
of Troy moves round, carrying with him a vast grove planted
on his brazen plate. Then, when he begins to tire of the
long delay and the incessant plucking out of darts, and feels
the unequal combat press him hard, meditating many things, at
last he springs from his covert, and hurls his spear full between
the hollow temples of the warrior-steed, Tlie gallant beast
rears itself upright, lashes the air with its heels, and, flinging
the rider, falls on and encumbers hira, and itself bowed to earth
presses with its shoulder the prostrate chief. Up flies .^neas,
plucks forth his sword from its scabbard, and bespeaks the
fallen : ' Where now is fierce ^lezentius and that his savage
vehemence of spirit ? ' To whom the Tuscan, soon as opening
his eyes on the light lie drank in the heaven and regained his
sense : ' Insulting foe, why reproach me and menace me with
death ? You may kill me without crime : I came not to battle
to be spared, nor was that the league which my Lausus ratified
with you for his father. One boon I ask, in the name of that
grace, if any there be, which is due to a vanquished enemy :
suffer my corpse to be interred. The hot hatred of my subjects,
well I know, is blazing all round me : screen uie, I pray, from
their fury, and vouclisafe me a share in the tomb of my son.'
So saying, with full resolve he welcomes the sword to his throat,
and spreads his life over his armour in broad streams of blood

( 368 )

BOOK XL

Meanwhile, the Goddess of Dawn has risen and left the ocean,
-^neas, though duty presses to find leisure for interring his
friends, and his mind is still wildered by the scene of blood,
was paying his vows to heaven as conqueror should at the
day-star's rise. A giant oak, lopped all round of its branches,
he sets uj) on a mound, and arrays it in gleaming arms, the
royal spoils of Mezentius, a trophy to thee, great Lord of
"War : thereto he attaches the crest yet raining blood, the
Avarrior's weapons notched and broken, and the hauberlc
stricken and pierced by twelve several wounds : to the left
hand he binds the brazen shield, and hangs to the neck the
ivory-hilted sword. Then he begins thus to give charge to
his triumphant friends, for the whole company of chiefs had
gathered to his side: 'A mighty deed, gallants, is achieved
already : dismiss all fear for the future : see here the spoIi*,
the tyrant's first-fruits : see here Mezentius as my hands have
made him. Now our march is to the king and the walls of
Latiuni. Set the battle in array in your hearts and let hope
forestall the fray, that no delay may check your ignorance at
the moment when heaven gives leave to pluck up the standards
and lead forth our chivalry from the camp, no coward resolve
palsy your steps with fear. IMeanwhile, consign we to earth
the unburied carcases of our friends, that solitary honour
which is held in account in the pit of Acheron. * Go,' he says,
'grace with the last tribute those glorious souls, who have

BOOK XI. 1-53. 369

Louglit for us tliis our futlicrland with the price of their
blood : and first to Evanders sorrowing town send we Pallas,
who, lacking nought of manly worth, has been reft by the evil
day, and whelmed in darkness before his time,'

So he says weeping, and returns to his tent-door, where
the body of breathless Pallas, duly laid out, was being
watched by Acoetes the aged, who had in old days been armour-
bearer to Evander his Arcadian lord, but then in an hour less
liappy was serving as the appointed guardian of the pupil he
loved. Around the corpse were thronging the retinue of menials
and the Trojan train, and dames of Ilion with their hair
unbound in mourning fashion. But soon as iEncas entered
the lofty portal, a mighty wail they raise to the stars, smiting
on their breasts, and the royal dwelling groans to its centre
with their agony of woe. He, when he saw the pilloweil
head and countenance of Pallas in his beauty, and the deep
cleft of the Ausonian spear in his marble bosom, thus speaks,
breaking into tears : ' Can it be, unhappy boy, that Fortune
at the moment of her triumphant flood-tide has grudged
3'ou to me, forbidding you to look on my kingdom, and ride
back victorious to your father's home? Not such was the
parting pledge I gave on your behalf to your sire Evander,
when, clasping me to his heart, he sent me on my way to
mighty empire, and anxiously warned me that the foe was
fierce and the race we should war with stubborn. And now
he belike at this very moment in the deep delusion of empty
hope is making vows to Heaven and piling the altars with
gifts, while we are following his darling, void of life, and
owing no dues henceforward to any power on high, with the
vain service of our sorrow. Ill-starred father ! your eyes shall
see what cruel death has made of your son. And is this the
proud return, the triumph we looked for ? has my solemn

pledge shrunk to this 1 Yet no beaten coward shall you see,

2 a

370 THE ALNEID,

I'lvander, chastised witli unseemly wounds, nor sluiU tlie fatlior
pray for death to come in its terror while the son survives.
Ay me ! how strong a defender is lost to our Ausonian realm,
and lost to you, my own lulus ! '

So having wailed his fill, he gives order to lift and bear the
poor corpse, and sends a thousand men chosen from his whoh;
array to attend the last service of woe, and lend their counte-
nance to the father's tears, a scant solace for that mighty
sorrow, yet not the less the wretched parent's due. Others,
nothing slack, plait the framework of a pliant bier with shoots
of arbute and oaken twigs, and shroud the heaped-up bed
with a covering of leaves. Here place they the youth raised
high on his rustic litter, even as a flower cropped by maiden's
linger, be it of delicate violet or drooping hyacinth, unfor-
saken as yet of its sparkling hue and its graceful outline, though
its parent earth no longer feeds it or supplies it with strength.
Then brought forth .tineas two garments stiff with gold and
purple, which Dido had wrought for him in other days with
her own hands, delighting in the toil, and had streaked their
webs with threads of gold. Of these the mourner spreads
one over his youthful friend as a last honour, and muffles the
locks on which the flame must feed : moreover he piles in
a heap many a spoil from Laurentum's fray, and bids the
plunder be carried in long procession. The steeds too and
weapons he adds of which he had stripped the foe. Already
had he bound the victims' hands behind their backs, doomed
as a sacrifice to the dead man's spirit, soon to spill their blood
over the fire : and now he bids the leaders in person carry
tree-trunks clad with hostile arras, and has the name of an
enemy attached to each. There is Acoetes led along, a lorn
old man, marring now his breast with blows, now his face
with laceration, and anon he throws himself at his full
length on the ground. They lead too the car, all spattered

BOOK XI. 55-117. 371

witL Rutuliau blood. After it the warrior steed, ^tlion, his
trappings laid aside, moves weeping, and bathes his visage
with big round drops. Others carry the spear and the helm :
for the rest of the harness is Turnus' prize. Then follows a
mourning army, the Teucrians, and all the Tuscans, and the
sons of Arcady with weapons turned downward. And now
after all the retinue had passed on in long array, ^Eneas stayed,
and groaning deeply uttered one word more : * We are sum-
moned hence by the same fearful destiny of war to shed other
tears : I bid you hail for ever, mightiest Pallas, and for ever
farewell.' Saying this and this only, he turned to the lofty
walls again, and bent his footsteps campward.

And now appeared the ambassadors from the town of
Latium, with the coverings of their olive boughs, entreating
an act of grace : the bodies which were lying over the plains
as the steel had mowed them down they pray him to restore,
and suffer them to pass under the mounded earth : no man
Avars with the vanquished and with those who have left the
sun : let him show mercy to men once known as his hosts
and the fathers of his bride. The good ^neas hearkens to
a prayer that merits no rebuke, grants them the boon, and
withal bespeaks them thus : ' What undeserved ill chance,
men of Latium, has entangled you in a war so terrible and
made you fly from us your friends 1 Ask you peace for
the dead, for those on whom the War-god's die has fallen ?
Kay, I would fain grant it to the living too. I were not
here had not fate assigned me a portion and a home : not
wage I war against your nation : it was the king that aban-
doned our alliance, and sought shelter rather under Turnus'
banner. Fairer it had been that Turnus should have met
the death-stroke ye mourn. If he seeks to end the war by
5-trength of arm and expel the Trojan enemy, duty bade him
confront me with weapons like mine, and that one should

372 THE AiNEID.

have lived, who had earned life from heaven or his own riglit
hand. Xow go and kindle the flame beneath your ill-starred
townsmen.' Eneas' speech was over : they stood in silent
wonder, their eyes and countenances steadfastly fixed on each
other. Then Drances, elder in birth, ever embroiled with
the youthful Tumus by hatred and taunting word, thus speaks
in reply : ' 0 mighty in fame's voice, mightier in your own
brave deeds, hero of Troy, Avhat praise shall I utter to match
you with the stars ? Shall I first admire your sacred love of
right, or the toils of your hand in war? Ours it shall be
gratefully to report your answer to our native tow^n, and
should any favouring chance allow, make you the friend of
king Latinus. Let Turnus look for alliance where he may.
^Nay, it will be our pride to nprear those massive walls of
destiny, and. heave on our shoulders the stones of your new
Troy.' He spoke, and the rest all murmured assent. For
twelve days they make truce, and with amity to mediate, Trojans
and Latians mingled roam through the forest on the mountain
slopes unharmingand unharmed. The lofty ash rings with the
two-edged steel : they bring low pines erst uplifted to the sky,
nor is there pause in cleaving with wedges the oak and fra-
grant cedar, or in carrying ashen trunks in the groaning wains.
And now flying Fame, the harbinger of that cruel agony,
is filling w'ith her tidings the ears of Evander, his palace and
his city — Fame that but few hours back was proclaiming
Pallas the conqueror of Latium. Forth stream the Arcadians
to the gates, with funeral torches in ancient fashion, snatched
up hurriedly ; the road gleams -with the long line of fire,
^ which parts the breath of fields on either hand. To meet
-^ them comes the train of Phrygians, and joins the wailing
company. Soon as the matrons saw them pass under the
shadow of the houses, they set the mourning city ablaze with
their shrieks. Eut Evander— no force can hold him back ; he

BOOK XI. 1 18-177. 373

rushes into the midst : there as they lay down the bier he has
flung himself upon Pallas, and is clinging to him with tears
and groans, till choking grief at last lets speech find her way :
' Xo, my Pallas ! this was not your promise to your sire, to
trust yourself witli caution in the "War-god's savage hands. I
knew what a spell there lay in the young dawn of a soldier's
glory, the enrapturing pride of the first day of battle. Alas
for the ill-starred first-fruits of youth, the cruel foretaste of
the coming Avar ! alas for those my vows and prayers, that
found no audience with any of the gods ! alas too for thee,
my blessed spouse, happy as thou art in tlie death tliat spared
thee not for this heavy sorrow ! while I, living on, have
triumphed over my destiny, that I might survive in solitary
fatherhood. Had I but followed the friendly standards of
Troy, and fallen whelmed by Eutulian javelins ! had I ren-
dered my own life up, so that this funeral train should have
borne me home, and not my Pallas ! Kor yet would I blame
you, men of Troy, nor the treat}'^ we made, nor the hands we
plighted in friendship ; it is but the portion ordained long
ago as fitting for my gray hairs. If it was written that my
son should die ere his time, it shall be well that he fell after
slaying his Volscian thousands, while leading a Teucrian army
to the gates of Lalium. Nay, my Pallas, I would wish for
you no worthier funeral than that accorded to you by ^neas
the good and his noble Phrygians, by the Tyrrhene leaders,
and the whole Tyrrhene host. Each bears you a mighty
trophy whom your right hand sends down to death. And
you, too, proud Turnus, would be standing at this moment, a
giant trunk hung round with armour, had your age been but
as his, the vigour of your years the same. But why should
misery like mine hold back the Teucrians from the battle?
Go, and remember to bear my message to your king. If 1
Ktill drag the wheels of my hated life now my Pallas is slain,

37-t THE ^NEID.

it is because of your right liaud, wliicli owes the debt of
Turnus' life to son and sire, yourself being witness. This is
the one remaining niche for your valour and your fortune to
fill. I ask not for triumph to gild my life : that thought were
crime : I ask but for tidings that I may bear to my son down
in the spectral world.'

Meantime the Goddess of Dawn had lifted on hicfh her
kindly light for suffering mortality, recalling them to task
and toil. Already father vEneas, already Tarchon, have set
up their funeral piles along the winding shore. Hither each
man brings the body of friend or kinsman as the rites of his
sires command; and as the murky flames are applied below,
darkness veils the heights of heaven in gloom. Thrice they
ran their courses round the lighted pyres, sheathed in shining
armour; thrice they circled on their steeds the mournful
funeral flame, and uttered the voice of wailing. Sprinkled is
the earth with their tears, sprinkled is the harness. Upsoara
to heaven at once the shout of warriors and the blare ol
trumpets. Others fling upon the fire plunder torn from the
Latian slain, helms and shapely swords and bridle-reins and
glowing wlieels ; some bring in offering the things the dead
men wore, their own shields and the weapons that sped so
ill. Many carcases of oxen are sacrificed round the piles :
bristly swine and cattle harried from the country round arc
made to bleed into the flame. Then along the whole line of
coast they gaze on their burning friends, and keep sentry
over the half-quenched fire-bed, nor let themselves be torn
away till dewy night rolls round the sky with its garniture
of blazing stars.

With like zeal the ill-starred Latians in a different quarter
set up countless piles ; of the multitude of corpses some they
bury in the earth, some they lift up and carry off to neigh-
bour districts, and send them home to the city ; the rest, a

BOOK XL 178-234. 375

miglity mass of promiscuous carnage, they burn uncounted
and unhonoured ; and thereon the plains through their length
and breadth gleam with the thickening rivalry of funeral
fires. The third morrow had withdrawn the chill shadows
from the sky : the mourners were levelling the piles of ashes
and sweeping the mingled bones from the hearths, and heap-
ing over them mounds of earth where the heat yet lingers,
liut within the walls, in the city of Latium's wealthy king,
the wailing is pre-eminent, and largest the portion of that
long agony. Here are mothers and their sons' wretched
brides, here are sisters' bosoms racked with sorrow and love,
and children orphaned of their parents, calling down curses
on the terrible war and on Turnus' bridal rites ; he, he him-
self, they cry, should try the issue with arms and tlie cold
steel, who claims for himself the Italian crown and the
honours of sovereignty. Fell Dranccs casts his Aveight into
the scale, and bears M'itness tliat Turnus alone is challenged
by the foe, Turnus alone defied to combat Against them
many a judgment is ranged in various phrase on Turnus' side,
and the queen's august name lends him its shadow ; many au
applauding voice upholds the warrior by help of the trophies
he has won.

Amid all this ferment, when the blaze of popular turmoil is
at its height, see, as a crowning blow, comes back the sorrow-
ing embassy with tidings from Dioraede's mighty town : the
cost of all their labours has gained them nought : gifts and
gold and earnest prayers are alike in vain : the Latians must
look for arms elsewhere, or sue for peace from the Trojan
chief. King Latinus himself is crushed to earth by the
weight of agony. The Avrath of the gods, the fresh-made
graves before his eyes, tell him plainly that ^neas is the man
of destiny, borne on by heaven's manifest will. So he sum-
mons by royal mandatt a mighty council, the chiefs of his

376 THE AiNEID.

nation, and gathers them within his lofty doors. They have
mustered from all sides, and are streaming to the palace
through the crowded streets. In the midst Latinus takes his
scat, at once eldest in years and first in kingly state, with
a brow that knows not joy. Hereupon he bids the envoys
returned from the ^tolian town to report the answers they
bear, and bids them repeat each point in order. Silence is pro-
claimed, and Venulus, obeying the mandate, begins to speak :
' Townsmen, we have looked on Diomede and his Argive
encampment : the journey is overpast, and every chance sur-
mounted, and we have touched the hand by which the realm
of Ilion fell. We found him raising his city of Argyripa, the
namesake of his ancestral people, in the land of Tapygian
(jiarganus which his sword had won. Soon as the presence
was gained and liberty of speech accorded, we proffer our gifts,
inform him of our name and countrj', who is our invader, and
what cause has led us to Arpi. He listened, and returned
as follows with untroubled mien : " 0 children of fortune,
subjects of Saturn's reign, men of old Ausonia, what caprice
of chance disturbs you in your repose, and bids you provoke
a war ye know not ? Know that all of us, whose steel pro-
faned the sanctity of Ilion's soil — I pass the hardships of
war, drained to the dregs under those lofty ramparts, the
brave hearts which that fatal Simois covers — yea, all of us
the wide world over have paid the dues of our trespass in
agonies unutterable, a company that might have wrung pity
even from Priam : witness Minerva's baleful star, and the
crags of Euboea, and Caphereus the avenger. Discharged
from that warfare, wandering outcasts on diverse shores,
Menelaus, Atreus' son, is journeying in banishment even
to the pillars of Proteus ; Ulysses has looked upon .^tna and
her Cyclop brood. Need I tell of l^eoptolemus' portioned'
realms, of Idomencus' dismantled home, of Locrian settlers on

BOOK XL 235-295. 377

a Libyan coast ? Even the monarcli of M^'ccnae, tlie leader
of the great Grecian name, met death on his very threshold
at the hand of his atrocious spouse ; Asia fell before him, but
tlie adulterer rose in her room. Cruel gods, that would not
have me restored to the hearth-fires of my home, to see once
more the wife of my longing and my own fair Calydon ! Nay,
even my flight is dogged by portents of dreadful view ; my
comrades torn from me are winging the air and haunting the
stream as birds — alas that the followers of my fortunes should
sulFer so ! — and making the rocks ring with the shrieks
of their sorrow. Such was the fate I had to look for even
from that day when with my frantic steel I assailed the
ilesh of immortals, and impiously wounded Venus' sacred hand.
Nay, nay, urge me no longer to a Avar like this. Since Per-
gamus fell, my fightings with Troy are ended ; I have no
thought, no joy, for the evils of the past. As for the gifts
which you bring me from your home, carry them rather to
yluicas. I tell you, I have stood against the fury of his
weapon, and joined hand to hand with him in battle ; trust
one who knows how strong is his onset as he rises on the
shield, how fierce the wliirlwind of his hurtling lance. Had
Ida's soil borne but two other so valiant, Dardanus would have
marched in his turn to tlie gates of Inachus, and the tears
of Greece Avould be floAving for a destiny reversed. All those
years of lingering at the Avails of stubborn Troy, it was
Hector's and -3^neas' hand that clogged the wheels of Grecian
victory, and delayed her coming till the tenth campaign had
begun. High in courage Avere both, high in the glory of
martial proAvess , but piety gave liim the pre-eminence. Join
liand to hand in treaty, if so you may ; but see that your arms
bide not the shock of his." Thus, gracious sire, have you heard
at once the king's reply, and the judgment he passed on this
our mighty Avar.'

378 THE ^NEID.

The envoys liad scarcely finished wlien a diverse murmur
runs along the quivering lips of the sons of Ausonia, as, when
rapid streams are checked by rocks in their course, confused
sounds rise from, the imprisoned torrent, and neighbouring
banks re-echo with the babbling of the waves. Soon as their
passions were allayed, and their chafed countenances settled
in calm, the monarch, first invoking heaven, begins from his
lofty throne :

' To have taken your judgment, Latians, ere this on the
state of the common-weal, would have been my pleasure, and
our truer interest, rather than summon a council at a crisis
like this, when the foe has sat down before our walls. A
grievous war, my countrymen, we are waging with the seed of
heaven, a nation unsubdued, whom no battles overtire, nor
even in defeat can they be made to drop the sword. For any
hope ye have cherished in the alliance of ^tolian arms, resign
it for ever. Each is his own hope ; and how slender is this
ye may see for yourselves. As to all beside, with what utter
ruin it is stricken is palpable to the sight of your eyes, to tlie
touch of your hands. I throw the blame on none : manly
worth has done the utmost it could : all the sinews of the
realm have been strained in the contest. Now then Iwill set
forth what is the judgment of my Avavering mind, and show
you it in few words, if ye Avill lend me your attention. There
is an ancient territory of mine bordering on the Tuscan river,
extending lengthwise to the west, even beyond the Sicaniau
frontier ; Auruncans and Eutulians are its tillers, subduing
with the ploughshare its stubborn hills, and pasturing their
flocks on the rugged slopes. Let this whole district, with the
lofty mountain and its belt of pines, be our friendly gift to the
Teucrians ; let us name equal terms of alliance, and invite
them to share our kingdom ; let them settle here, if their
passion is so strong, and build them a city. But if they have

BOOK XI. 296-354- 379

a niind. to compass other lands and another nation, and are free
to quit our soil, let us build twenty ships of Italian timber, or
more if they have men to fill them : there is the wood ready
felled by the river side ; let themselves prescribe the size and
the number ; let us provide brass, and hands, and naval trim.
]\Ioreover, to convey our proffers and ratify the league, I would
have an embassy of a hundred Latians of the first rank sent
with peaceful branches in their hands, carrying also presents,
gold and ivory, each a talent's weight, and the chair and striped
robe that are badges of our royalty. Give free counsel and
help to support a fainting commonwealth.'

Then Drances, hostile as ever, whom the martial fame of
Turnus was ever goading with the bitter stings of sidelong
envy, rich, and prodigal of his riclies, a doughty warrior with
the tongue, but a feeble hand in the heat of battle, esteemed
no mean adviser in debate, and powerful in the arts of faction :
his mother's noble blood made proud a lineage which on his
father's side was counted obscure : — he rises, and with words
like these piles and heaps anger high :

' A matter obscure to none, and needing no voice of ours
to make it plain is this that you propound, gracious king.
All own that they know what is the bearing of the state's
fortune ; but their tongues can only mutter. Let him accord
freedom of speech, and bate his angry blasts, to whose
ill-omened leadership and inauspicious temper — ay, I will
speak, let him threaten me with duel and death as he may
— we owe it that so many of our army's stars have set
before our eyes, and the whole city is sunk in mourning, while
he is making liis essay of the Trojan camp, with flight always
in reserve, and scaring heaven with the din of his arms. One
gift there is over and above that long catalogue which you
would have us send and promise to the Dardans : add but this
to tliem, most excellent sovereign, nor let any man's violence

38o THE .^NEID.

prevent you from bestowiug your dauglitcr in the fulness of
a father's right on a noble son-in-law and a worthy alliance,
and basing the peace we seek on a covenant which shall last
for ever. IS'ay, if the reign of terror is so absolute over our
minds and hearts, let us go straight to him with our adjura-
tions and ask for grace at his own hands — ask him to yield,
and allow king and country to exercise their rights. Why
fling your wretched countrymen again and again into danger's
tliroat, you, the head and wellspring of the ills which Latium
lias to bear ? There is no hope from war ; peace we ask of you,
one and all — yes, Turnus, peace, and the one surety that can
make peace sacred. See, first of all I, whom you give out to be
your enemy — and I care not though I be — come and throw my-
self at your feet. Pity those of your own kin, bring down your
])ride, and retire as beaten man should. Eouted we are ; we
liave looked on corpses enough, and have left leagues enough of
land unpeopled. Or if glory stirs you, if you can call up into
your breast the courage needed, if the dowry of a palace lies so
near your heart, be bold for once, and advance with bosom
manned to meet the foe. What ! that Turnus may have the bless-
ing of a queenly bride, are Ave, poor paltry lives, a herd unburied
and unwept, to lie weltering on the plain ? It is your turn :
if you have any strength, any touch of the War-god of yoiix
sires, look him in the face who sends you his challenge.'
• At these words Turnus' violence blazed out : heaving a
groan, he vents from the bottom of his heart such utterance
as this : * Copious, Drances, ever is your stream of speech in
the hour when war is calling for hands ; when the senate is
summoned, you are first in the field. Yet we want not men
to fill our court with talk, that big talk which you hurl from
a safe vantage-ground, while the rampart keeps off the foe and
the moat is not foaming with carnage. Go on pealing your
eloquence, as your wont is : let Drances brand Turnus with

BOOK XI. 3SS-VA- 381

cowardice, for it is Drances' hand that has piled those very
heaps of Teuciian slaughter, and is planting the fields all
over with its trophies. What is the power of glowing valour,
experience may show you : enemies in sooth are not far
to seek : they are standing all about the walls. "Well, are we
marching to the encounter'? why so slow? will you never
lodge the War-god Letter than in that windy tongue, those
flying feet? What? beaten? I? who, foulest of slanderers,
will justly brand me as beaten, that shall look on Tiber still
swelling with Ilion's best blood, on Evander's whole house
prostrate root and branch, and his Arcadians stripped naked
of tlieir armour? It was no beaten arm that Bitias and giant
Pandarus found in me, or the thousand that I sent to death
in a single day with my conquering hand, shut up within
their walls, pent in by the rami)art of the foe. No hope from
Avar? Croak your bodings, madman, in the ears of the
Dardan and of your own fortunes. Ay, go on without cease,
throwing all into measureless i)anic, heightening the prowess
of a nation twice conquered already, and dwarfing no less
the arms of your king. See, now the lords of the Myrmidons
are quaking at tlie martial deeds of Phrygia, Tydeus' son,
Thessalian Achilles, and the rest, and river Aufidus is iu
full retreat from the Hadrian sea. Or listen when the
trickster in his villany feigns himself too weak to face a
qiiarrel with me, and points his charges with the sting of
terror. !Never, I jiromise you, shall you lose such life as
yours by hand of mine — be troubled no longer — let it dwell
with you and retain its home in that congenial breast. Xow,
gracious sire, I return to you and the august matter that asks
our counsel. If you have no hope beyond in aught our arms
can do, if we are so wholly forlorn, destroyed root and branch
by one reverse, and our star can never rise again, then pray
we for peace and stretch craven hands in suppliance. Yet,

3^2 THE JENEID

oh, liad we but one spark of tlie worth that once was our?,
that man I would esteem blest beyond others in his service
and princely of soul, who, sooner than look on aught like
this, has lain down in death and once for all bitten the dust.
But if we have still store of power, and a harvest of youth
yet unreaped, if there are cities and nations of Italy yet to
come to our aid, if the Trojans as well as we have won their
glory at much bloodshed's cost — for they too have their deaths
— the hurricane has swept over all alike — why do we merely
falter on the threshold 1 why are we seized with shivering ere
the trumpet blows? Many a man's weal has been restored
by time and the changeful struggles of shifting days : many
a man has Fortune, fair and foul by turns, made her sport
and then once more placed on a rock. Grant that we shall
have no help from the ^tolian and his Arpi : but we shall
from Messapus, and the blest Tolumnius, and all the leaders
that those many nations have sent us ; nor small shall be the
glory which will wait on the flower of Latium and the Lau-
rentine land. Ay, and we have Camilla, of the noble Volscian
race, with a band of horsemen at her back and troops gleam-
ing with brass. If it is I alone that the Teucrians challenge
to the fight, and such is your will, and my life is indeed the
standing obstacle to the good of all, Victory has not heretofore
fled with such loathing from my hands that I should refuse
to make my venture for a hope so glorious. No, I will con-
front him boldly, though he should prove great as Achilles,
and don harness like his, the work of Vulcan's art. To you
and to my royal father-in-law have I here devoted this my
life, T, Turnus, second in valour to none that went before me.
" For me alone ^neas calls." Vouchsafe that he may so call !
nor let Drances in my stead, if the issue be Heaven's venge-
ance, forfeit his life, or, if it be prowess and glory, bear that
prize away ! '

BOOK XI. 415-475. 383

F5o were these contending over matters of doubtful debate :
^neas was moving his army from camp to field. See, there
i-uns a messenger from end to end of the palace amid wild
confusion, and fills the town with a mighty terror, how that
in marching array the Trojans and the Tuscan force are
sweeping down from Tiber's stream over all the plain. In
an instant the minds of the people are confounded, their
bosoms shaken to the core, their passions goaded by no
gentle stings. They clutch at arms, clamour for arms : arms
are the young men's cry : the weeping fathers moan and
mutter. And now a mighty din, blended of discordant voices,
soars up to the skies, even as when haply flocks of birds
have settled down in a lofty grove, or on the fishy stream
of Padusa hoarse swans make a noise along the babbling
Avaters. • Ay, good citizens,' cries Turnus, seizing on his
moment, ' assemble your council and sit praising peace ; they
are rushing on the realm sword in hand.' Without further
si)eech he dashed away and issued swiftly from the lofty gate,
' You, Volusus,' he cries, * bid the Yolscian squadrons arm,
and lead out the Rutulians. You, Messapus, and you, Coras
and your brother, spread the horse in battle array over the
breadth of the plain. Let some guard the inlets of the city
and man the towers ; the rest attack Avith me in the quarter
for which I give the word.' At once there is a rush to the
ramparts from every part of the city : king Latinus leaves the
council and the high debate unfinished, and wildered with
the unhappy time, adjourns to another day, ofttimes blaming
himself that he Avelcomed not with open arms .^neas the
Dardan, and bestowed on the city a husband for the daughter
of Latium. Others dig trenches before the gates or shoulder
stones and stakes. The hoarse trumpet gives its deathful
warning for battle. The walls are hemmed by a motley ring
of matrons and boys : the call of the last struggle rings in

384 THE .ENEID.

each one's ear. Moreover the queen among a vast train of
Latian mothers is drawn to the temple, even to Pallas' towei-
on the height, with presents in her hand, and at her sido
the maid Lavinia, cause of this cruel woe, her beauteous
eyes cast down. The matrons enter the temple and make
it steam with incense, and pour from the august threshold
their plaints of sorrow : ' Lady of arms, mistress of the war,
Tritonian maiden, stretch forth thy hand and break the spear
of the Plrrygian freebooter, lay him prostrate on the ground,
and leave him to grovel under our lofty portals.' Turnus
with emulous fury arms himself for the battle. And now ho
has donned his ruddy corselet, and is bristling with brazen
scales ; his calves have been sheathed in gold, his temples yet
bare, and his sword bad been girded to his side, and he shines
as he runs all golden from the steep of the citadel, bounding
high with courage, and in hope already forestalls the foe : even
as when a horse, bursting his tether, escapes from the stall,
free at last and master of the open champaign, either wends
where the herds of marcs pasture, or wont to bathe in the
well-known river darts forth and neicdis with head tossed on
high in wanton frolic, while his mane plays loosely about
neck and shoulders. Ilis path Camilla crosses, a Volscian
army at her back, and dismounts from her horse at the gate
with queenly gesture ; the whole band follow her lead, quit
their horses, and alight to earth, while she bespeaks liim
thus : ' Turnus, if the brave may feel faith in themselves, I
promise boldly to confront the cavalry of Troy and singly riilo
to meet the Tyrrhene horse. Let me essay the first hazard
of the combat; do you on foot remain by the walls and
be the city's guard.' Turnus replies, gazing steadfastly on
the dreadful maid : ' 0 maiden, glory of Italy, what thanks
shall I strive to speak or render ? but seeing that soul of
youi'S soars above all, partake the toil with me. JEncaa,

BOOK XI. 477-546. 385

as rumour anil missioned spies tell me for truth, lias cunningly
sent on his light-arnieJ cavalry to scour the plain, while he,
surmounting the lonely steeps of the hill, is marching town-
M'ard. I meditate a stratagem of war in that woodland gorge,
to beset the narrow thoroughfare with an armed band. Do
you in battle array receive the Tuscan horse. With you will
be keen Messapus, and the Latian cavalry, and Tiburtus' troop :
take your share of a general's charge.' This said, he exhorts
Messapus and the federate leaders with like words to the
fightj and advances to meet the enemy. A glen there is,
narrow and winding, suited for ambush and stratagems of
arms, pent in on both sides by a mountain-wall black with
dense foliage ; a scant pathway leads to it, with straitened
gorge and jealous inlet. Above it on the mountain's watch-
tower height lies a concealed tabledand, a post of sheltered
privacy, whether one be minded to face the battle right and
loft, or, standing on the slope, to roll down enormous stones.
Hither repairs the warrior along the well-known road : he has
occupied the spot and sat him down in the treacherous forest.
Meantime, iu the mansions above Latona's daughter was
addressing Opis the swift, a maiden comrade of her sacred
train, and was uttering these words in tones of sorrow : ' Ah,
maiden, Camilla is on her way to the ruthless war ; in vain
she girds herself with the arms of our sisterhood, dear to me
that she is beyond all beside : for no new tenderness this that
has come on Diana, nor sudden the spell wherewith it stirs her
heart. When Metabus, exiled for the hate which tyranny gen-
ders, was parting from Privernum, his ancient city, as he fled
from the heart of the combat, he bore away his infant child to
share his banishment, and varying Casmilla, her mother's name,
called her Camilla. The father, carrying her in his bosom, was
making for the long mountain slopes of the solitary woodsj
Avhile bitter javelins were showering all around him, and the

Yolscians with circling soldiery hovering about : when lo !

2 B

3Sb THE AiNElD.

intercepting his flight was Amasenus, brimming and foaming
over its banks, so vast a deluge of rain had burst from the
clouds. Preparing to plunge in, he is checked by tenderness
for his child, and fears for the precious load. At last, as he
pondered over every course, he hit suddenly on this resolve.
There Avas a huge weapon, which he chanced to be carrying in
his stalwart hand as warriors use, sturdy Avith knots and
seasoned timber : to it he fastens his daughter, enclosed in
the cork-tree's forest bark, and binds her neatly round the
middle of the shaft; then, poising it in a giant's grasp, he
thus exclaims to heaven : " Gracious lady, dweller in the
Avoods, Latona's maiden daughter, I voav to thy service tbis
my child : thine are the first Aveapons that she Avields as she
flies from the foe through air to thy protection. Eeceive, I
conjure thee, as thine own her whom I noAV entrust to tbe
uncertain gale." He said, and, drawing back his arm, hurled
the javelin : loud roared the Avaves, while over the furious
stream fled poor Camilla on the hurtling dart. But Metabus,
pressed closer and closer by the numerous baud, leaps into
the river, and in triumph plucks from the grassy bank his
offering to Trivia, the javelin and the maid. No cities
opened to him house or stronghold, for his Avild nature had
never brooked submission : among the shepherds'' lonely
mountains he passed his days. There in the Avoods, among
beasts' saA^age lairs, he reared his daughter on milk from
the breast of an untamed mare, squeezing the udder into her
tender lips. And soon as the child first stood on her feet,
he armed her hands Avith a pointed javelin, and hung from
lier baby shoulder a quiver and a boAV. Tor the golden brooch
in her hair, for the long sweeping mantle, there hang from her
head adown her back a tiger's spoils. Even then she launched
Avith tiny hand her childish missiles, swung round her head
the sling's Avell-turned thong, and brought doAvn a crane from
Su-ymon or a snoAV-Avhite swan. Many a mother in Tyrrhene

BOOK XL 547-615. 3S7

town has -wooed her for her son in vain : •with no thought hut
for Dian, slie cherishes in unsullied purity her love for the
hunter's and the maiden's life. Would she had never been
pressed for warfare like this, essaying to strike a blow at the
Teucrians : so had she still been my darling and a sister of my
train. But come, since cruel destiny is darkening round her,
glide down, fair nymph, from the sk}', and repair to the Latian
frontier, where now in an evil hour the tearful battle is join-
ing. Take these arms, and draw from the quiver an avenging
shaft : therewith let the foe, whoever he be, Ti'ojan or Italian,
that shall profane with the stroke of death that sacred person,
make to me in like manner the atonement of his blood. After-
wards in the hollow of a cloud I will bear off the body of my
lost favourite undespoiled of its arm?, and lay her down in her
own land.' Thus she : and Opis hurtled downward through
the buoyant air, a black whirlwind cnswatliing her form.

But the Trojan band meanwhile is nearing the walls with
the Etruscan chiefs and the whole array of cavalry, marshalled
into companies. Steeds are prancing and neighing the whole
champaign over, and chafing against the drawn bridle as they
face hither and thither : the field, all iron, bristles far and.
Avide with spears, and the plains are ablaze with arms reared
on high. Likewise Messapus on the other side and the swift-
paced Latians, and Coras and his brother, and maid Camilla's
force appear in the plain against them, couching the lance in
their backdrawn hands and brandishing the javelin : and the
onset of warriors and the neighing of steeds begin to wax hot.
And now each army had halted within a spear-throw of the.
other : with a sudden shout they dash forward, and put spurs
to their fiery steeds : missiles are showered from all sides in
a moment, thick as snow-flakes, and heaven is curtained with,
the shade. Instantly Tyrrhenus and fierce Aconteus charge
each other spear in hand, and foremost of all crash together
with sound a? of thunder, so that the chest of either steed is

388 THE JEN EI D.

burst against his fellow's ; Aconteus, flung oflF like the levin-
bolt or a stone hurled from an engine, tumbles headlong in the
distance, and scatters his life in air. At once the line of battle
is broken, and the Latians, turned to flight, sling their shields
behind them and set their horses' heads cityward. The Trojans
give them chase : Asilas in the van leads their bands. And
now they were nearing the gates, when the Latians in turn set
up a shout, and turn their chargers' limber necks ; the others
fly, and retreat far away at full speed. As when the sea, ad-
vancing with its tide that ebbs and flows, one Avhile sweeps
towards the land, deluges the rocks with a shower of spray, and
sprinkles the sandy margin with the contents of its bosom, one
while flees in hasty retreat, dragging back into the gulf the
recaptured stones, and with ebbing waters leaves the shore.
Twice the Tuscans drove the Rutulians in rout to their walls ;
twice, repulsed, they look behind as they sling their shields
backward. But when in the shock of a third encounter the
entire armies grapple each other, and man has singled out man,
then in truth upsoar the groans of the dying, and arms and
bodies and death-stricken horses blended with human carnacre
welter in pools of gore : and a savage combat is aroused.
Orsilochus hurls a spear at Remulus' horse — for the rider he
feared to encounter — and leaves the steel lodged undel' the ear.
Maddened by the blow, the beast rears erect, and, uplifting its
breast, flings its legs on high in the uncontrolled agony of the
wound : Remulus unseated rolls on earth. Catillus dismounts
lollas, and likewise Herminius, giant in courage, and giant too
in stature and girth : his bare head streams with yellow locks,
and his shoidders also are bare : wounds have no terrors for
him, so vast the surface he ofl"ers to the w^eaporu Through his
broad shoulders comes the quivering spear, and bows the im-
paled hero double with anguish. Black streams of gore gush
on all sides : the combatants spread slaughter with the steel,
and rush on glorious death through a storm of wounds.

BOOK XI. 615-680. 389

Lut Camilla, "with a quiver at her back, and one breast put
forth for the combat, leaps for joy like an Amazon in the
midst of carnage : now she scatters thick volleys of quivering
javelins, now her arm whirls unwearied the massy two-edged
axe : Avhile from her shoulder sounds the golden bow, the
artillery of Dian. ^ay, if ever she be beaten back and
retreating rearward, she turns her bow and aims shafts in
her flight. Around her are her chosen comrades, maid Larina,
and Tulla, and Tarpeia, wielding the brazen-helved hatchet,
daughters of Italy, Avhom glorious Camilla herself chose to
be her joy and pride, able to deal alike with peace and war :
even as the Amazons of Thrace when they thunder over the
streams of Tliermodon and battle with their blazoned arms,
encompassing Hippolyte, or when Penthesilea, the War-god's
darling, is careering to and fro in her chariot, and the woman
army, amid a hubbub of shrill cries, are leaping in ecstasy
and shaking their moony shields. Who first, who last,
iierce maiden, is unhorsed by your dart? How many stal-
wart bodies lay you low in death? The first was Euneus,
Clytius' son, whose unguarded breast as he stood fronting
her she pierces with her long pine-wood spear. Down he
goes, disgorging streams of blood, closes his teeth on the
gory soil, and dying writhes upon liis wound. Then Liris,
and Pagasus on his body : while that, flung from his stabbed
charger, is gathering up the reins, and this is coming to the
rescue and stretching his unarmed hand to his falling com-
rade, they are overthrown in one headlong ruin. To these
she adds Amastrus, son of Hippotas : then, pressing on the
rout, pursues with her spear-throw Tereus, and Harpalj'cus,
and Demophoon, and Chromis : for every dart she launched
from her maiden hand there fell a Phrj-gian warrior. In the Uioj^j i^
distance rides Ornytus accoutred strangely in hunter fashion
on an lapygian steed : a hide stripped from a bullock swathes
his broad shoulders in the combat, hi", head is sheltered by a

390 THE .ENEID.

wolfs liugG grinning mouth and jaws with the white teeth
projecting, and a rustic pike arms his hand : he goes whirl-
ing through the ranks, his whole head overtopping them.
Ilini she catches, an easy task when the hosts are entangled
in rout, pierces him through, and thus bespeaks the fallen in
the fierceness of her spirit : ' Tuscan, you thought yourself
still chasing beasts in the forest , but the day is come Avhich
shall refute the vaunts of your nation by a woman's weapons.
Yet no slight glory shall you carry down to your fathers'
shades, that you have fallen by the dart of Camilla.' Next
follow Orsilochus and Butes, two of the hugest frames of
Troy : Butes she speared behind 'twixt corselet and helm,
where the sitter's neck is seen gleaming, and the shield is
hanging from the left arm : Grsilochus, as she pretends to
fly and wheels round in a mighty ring, she baffles by ever
circling inwards, and chases him that chases her : at last,
rising to the stroke, slie brings down on the wretch again
and again, spite of all his prayers, her massy battle-axe that
rives armour and bone : the brain spouts over the face
through the ghastly wound. ^N'ow there stumbles upon her,
and pauses in terror at the sudden apparition, the Avarrior
son of Annus, dweller on the Apennine, not the meanest
of Liguria's children while Fate prospered his trickery. He,
when he sees no speed of flight can escape the combat, or
avoid the onset of the dreadful queen, essaying to gain his
base end by policy and stratagem, thus begins : ' What,
great glory is it after all, if you, a woman, trust your
mettled steed ? Put away the chance of flight, and dare to
meet me hand to hand on equal ground, and gird you for
battle on foot : soon shall you see which of us gains honour
from this windy boasting.' He said: but she, all on fire,
stung with bitter grief, gives her horse to her comrade, and
stands ready to meet him in arms, fearless though on foot,
wiih naked sword and maiden shield. But the vouth, deem-

BOOK XI. 681-747. 391

ing that his wiles had sped, darts away without more ado, and
turning his bridle, rides off in flight, and wearies his beast
with the strokes of his iron heel. 'False Ligurian, vainly
I)uffod up with overweening fancies, to no end have you tried
your sire's slippery craft, nor shall your lying bring you safe to
Annus the liar.' So cries the maiden, and with lightning-like
pace crosses at full speed the horse's path, and seizing the reins,
fronts and encounters him, and gluts her vengeance with his
hated blood : easily as a hawk, the bird of augury, darting from
a lofty rock, comes up with a dove high in the clouds, holds
her in his gripe, and with crooked talons tears out her heart,
Avhile gore and plucked feathers come tumbling from the sky.
Eut no lilind spectator of the scene is sitting throned on
high Olympus, even the father of men and gods. The sire
urges Tarchon the Tuscan to the ruthless fray, and goads him
to wrath by no gentle stings. So among heaps of carnage
and yielding bands Tarchon goes riding, and rouses the
cavalry with words of diverse purport, calling each by his
name, and gives the beaten new strength for battle. ' What
terror, 0 ye Tuscan hearts that will not feel, that Avill still be
sluggish, what strange cowardice has come on you? To
what end is this steel, these idle weapons our right hands
bear ? But slow ye are not to hear the call of love, or when
the wry-necked fife gives the word for the Bacchic dance : ay,
there is your passion, there your delight, till the favouring
seer announce the sacrificial feast, and the fat victim invito
YOU to the tall trees of the grove.' So saying, he spurs
his steed into the midst, ready for the death lie_ brings i^^*
to__others, and charges in fury on Yenulus, snatches the
foe from his horse, folds his arms round him, and carries
liim on his saddle before him Avith wild and violent speed.
TJpsoars a shout to heaven, and every Latlan eye is turned
to the scene. Over the plain like lightning flies Tarchon,
bearing the warrior and his arms. Then from the top of the

392 THE ^NEID.

chief's own spoar lie breaks off the point, and feels for an
unguarded part where to plant the deadly blow : the foe,
struggling, keeps off Tarchon's hand from his throat, and
repels force with force. As when the golden eagle soaring
on high carries a serpent he has caught, trussing it in his
claws, and adhering with his taloned gripe ; the wounded
reptile writhes its spiral coils, stiffens with erected scales,
and hisses from its mouth, surging and swelling ; the eagle,
undismayed, plies it despite its struggles with his hooked
beak, while his pinions beat the air : even thus Tarchon
carries his prize in triumph from the bands of Tibur's folk.
Following their chief's auspicious lead, the sons of Mseonia
charge the foe. Then Arruns, the man of fate, compasses
swift Camilla about, dart in hand, wnth many a forestall-
ing wile, and tries what chance may be readiest. "Wher-
ever the fiery maid dashes into the midst of the battle,
Arruns threads his way after her, and scans her steps in
silence : wherever she returns in triumph, escaping safely
from the foe, that way the youth turns his swift and stealthy
rein ; now makes proof of this approach, now of that, and
traverses the whole circle, and shakes with relentless malice
his inevitable lance. It chanced that one Chloreus, sacred
to Cybele and once her priest, was shining conspicuous
from afar in Phrygian armour, urging on a foaming charger,
whose covering was a skin adorned with golden clasp and
brazen scales set plume-w'ise. He, in the blaze of foreign
l^urple, was launching Gortynian shafts from a Lycian
bow ; golden Avas the bow that rang from his shoulder,
golden the helm on his sacred head ; his saffron scarf
Avith its rustling gauzy folds was gathered up by a golden
brooch, and his tunic and his hose decked with barbaric
broidery. He it was that the maiden, eager, it may be, to
fasten on the temple-gate the arms of Troy, or to flaunt herself
in the golden spoil, singled out from all the battle, and was

BOOK XL 748-813. 393

following with a liunter's blind devotion, raging recklessly
through the ranks, enkindled with a woman's love for prey and
plunder ; when at length, seizing his opportunity, Arruns
awakes his dart from its ambush, and thus prays aloud to
lieaven : ' Greatest of gods, Apollo, guardian of divine Soracte,
whom we are the first to worship, for whom the pine-tree glow
is fed by heaps of wooil, while ourselves, thy votaries, strong
in our piety, walk tlirough the flame over living embers,
grant, all-powerful sire, that my arms may wipe this
scandal away, I seek no plunder or spoil, no trophy for
the conquest of a maid ; the rest of my deeds shall secure
my fame.; let but this terrible fiend fall vanquished by
Avound of mine, I will return to the cities of my fathers an
unhonoured man.' Phoebus heard, and vouchsafed in his
heart that half the vow should speed, while half he scattered
among the flying breezes : to strike and slay Camilla with
sudden death-wound, so much he grants the suppliant : to
return and meet the eyes of his noble fatherland, this he
allows not; the gusts of air turned the accents into wind.
So when the spear, launched from the hand, was heard along
the sky, each keen Volscian mind ilew to one centre, every
Volscian eye was bent on the queen. She alone had no
thought for wind or sound or weapon sweeping down from
heaven, till the spear had made its passage and lodged beneath
lior protruded breast, and deeply driven, drank her maiden
blood. Her comrades run together in alarm, and support their
falling mistress. Arruns, more terrified than all, flies away, half
joj', half fear, nor puts further confidence in his lance, nor
dares to meet the darts of the maiden. Even as the caitiff
wolf, ere the weapons of vengeance can follow him, has fled
at once to the pathless privacy of the mountain steep, on slay-
ing a shepherd or mighty bullock, conscious of his daring
deed, and drawing back his quivering tail with lithe action
has clapped it to his belly and made for the woods, in liko

394 THE ALNEID.

manner Arruns all wildered has stolen away from sight, and
contented to escape has plunged into the thick of the battle.
"With dying hand the maiden pulls at the spear ; but the steely
point stands lodged among the bones at the ribs in the deep
wound it made. Drained of blood, she sinks to earth ; sink,
too, her death-chilled eyes ; her once bright bloom has left
her face. Then at her last gasp she accosts Acca, one of her
maiden train, who beyond the rest was Camilla's friend
and shared her thoughts, and speaks on this wise : * Thus
far, sister Acca, has strength been given me ; now the cruel
wound overcomes me ; and all around me grows dim and dark.
Haste and carry Turnus my dying charge, to take my place in
the battle and keep off the Trojans from the town. And now
farewell' As she spoke she dropped the bridle, swimming
down to earth with no willing act. Then as the death-chill
grows she gradually discumbers herself of the entire weight of
the body, droops her unstrung neck and her head on which
fate has seized, quitting too her armour, and her soul, resenting
its lot, flies groaningly to the shades. Then indeed, rising
unmeasured, the uproar strikes the golden stars : Camilla over-
thrown, the fight waxes fiercer : on they rush thickening, at
once the whole force of the Teucrians, and the Tyrrhene
leaders, and Evander's Arcad cavalry.

But Trivia's sentinel Opis has long been seated high on
the mountain top, an undismayed spectator of the com-
bat. And when far off, deep among the din of raging
warriors, she spied Camilla shent by ruthless death, she
groaned, and fetched these words from the bottom of her
breast : ' Poor maiden ! too, too cruel the penalty you have
paid for provoking the Teucrians to battle. ISTought has it
bestead you at your need to have served Dian in the forest,
and carried on your shoulder the shafts of our sisterhood.
Yet not unhonoured has your queen left you even here in
death's extremity ; nor shall this your end be without ita

BOOK XL 8:4-881. 395

glory in the world, nor yourself bear the ignominy of the
unrevenged; for he, whoever he be, whose wound has pro-
faned your person, shall atone it by the death he has earned.'
Under the lofty mountain's shade there stood a vast mound
of earth, the tomb of Dercennus, an old Laurentine king,
shrouded with dark ilex : here the beauteous goddess first
alights with a rapid bound, and spies out Arruns from the
barrow's height. Soon as she saw him gleaming in his
armour, and swelling with vanity, ' ^Miy stray from the
path ? ' cries she ; ' turn your feet hitherward ! come hither
to your death, and receive Camilla's guerdon ! Alack ! and
are you too to be slain by the shafts of Dian 1 ' She said,
and with the skill of Thracian maiden drew a swift arrow
from her gilded quiver, bent the bow with deadly aim, and
drew it far apart, till the arching ends met together, and witli
her tAvo hands she touched, the barb of steel with her left,
her breast with her right and the bowstring. Forthwith the
hurtling of the shaft and the rush of the breeze reached
Arruns' ear at the moment the steel lodged in his body.
Him gasping and groaning his last his comrades leave
untliinking in the unmarked dust of the plain : Opis spreads
her wings, and is borne to skiey Olympus.

First flies, its mistress lost, Camilla's light-armed company;
fly the Rutules in rout, flies keen Atinas ; leaders in disarray
and troops in devastation make for shelter, turn round, and
gallop to the walls. I^one can sustain in combat the Teu-
crians' deadly onset or resist the stream ; they throw their
unstrung bows on their unnerved shoulders, and the hoof of
four-foot steeds shakes the crumbling plain. On rolls to the
rampar*;s a cloud of dust, thick and murky ; and the matrons
from their sentry-posts, smiting on their breasts, raise a shriek
as women wont to the stars of heaven. Who first pour at
ppeeel through the open gates are whelmed by a multitude of
foemen that blends its crowd with theirs ] they scape not tho

396 THE .^NEID.

agony of death, but on the very threshohl, with their native
Avails around them, in the sanctuary of home, they breathe
away their lives. Some close the gates : they dare not give
ingress to their friends nor take them within the walls, im-
plore as they may : and a piteous carnage ensues, these guard-
ing the approach sword in hand, those rushing on the sword's
point. Some, borne on by the deluge, stream headlong into
the moat ; some in blind agony, spurring their horses, charge
as with battering-rams the portals and their stubborn barriers.
Nay, the very matrons on the walls in the intensity of the
struggle, prompted by true patriot spirit at sight of Camilla,
fling darts from their quivering hands, and make hard oak-
stakes and seared truncheons do the work of steel, hot and
headlong, and fain would be the first to die for their city.

Meantime the cruel news floods Turnus' ears in his forest-
ambush, as Acca tells the warrior her tale of mighty terror :
the Volscian ranks destroyed, Camilla slain, the enemy
coming on like a torrent, sweeping all before their victorious
onslaught, the alarm already Avafted to the Avails, He, all on
fire (for even such is Jove's stern requirement), quits his post
on the hills, leaves the impregnable forest. Scarce had he
passed from their sight and occupied the plain, Avhen father
^neas, entering the unguarded pass, scales the hill-top, and
issues through the shadoAvy Avood, So tlie tAvo rivals march
cityward at full speed, each Avith all his army, nor long is the
intervening distance ; at the same moment ^neas looked far
over the plains all smoking Avitli dust, and saw the host of
Laurentum, and Turnus Avas aware of fell ^neas in battle
array, and heard the onAA'ard tramp of feet and the neighing of
steeds. Instantly they Avere for closing in fight and throAving
for the stake of combat ; but the time was come for reddening
Phoebus to bathe his Avearied team in the Hiberian flood, and
bring back night on the steps of retreating day. So they
encamp before the city, and make their ramparts strong.

LOOK XII.

"When Turnus sees tliat the War-god's enmity has broken the
spirit of Latium, that men are beginning to claim his promise,
and make him the mark of their eves, he bursts at once into
fury unappeasable, and swells his pride to the height. As in
Punic land, when the hunters have wounded him deep in the
breast, the lion at last rouses himself to fight, tosses with fierce
joy his mane from his neck, snaps fearlessly the brigand's
spear in the wound, and roars from his gory mouth : even
so, Turnus once kindled, his vehemence grows each moment.
Then he addresses the king, and dashes hotly into speech :
'Turnus stops not the way: .^neas and his cowards have no
plea for retracting their challenge or disowning their plighted
word ; I meet the combat ; bring the sacred things, good
father, and solemnise the truce. Either will I with my own
right hand send the Durdan down to Tartarus, the runaway
from Asia — let the Latians sit by and see — and with my single
weapon refute the slander of a nation ; or let the vanquished
own their master and Lavinia be the conqueror's bride.'

With calm dignity of soul the king makes answer : ' Gallant
youth, the greater your impetuous valour, the more watchful
must needs be my foresight, the more anxious my scrutiny of
all that may happen. You have your father Daunus' king-
dom, you have many a town won by your own sword : I that
speak have gold and a heart to give it; in Latium and Laur-
entum's land are other unwedded maidens, of no unworthy
lineage. Suffer me without disguise to give voice to these

397

398 THE ALNEID.

unwelcome sayings, and take home wliat I speak furtlicr : I wag
forbidden by Fate to give my daughter to any of her early suitors:
so sang gods and men alike. Conquered by my love for you,
conquered by the ties of kindred and the sorrow of my weep-
ing queen, I set all pledges at naught, I snatched the bride
from her plighted husband. I drew the unhallowed sword.
From that fatal day you see what troubles, what wars are let
loose upon me ; you know the weight of the sufferings which
you are the first to feel. Twice vanquished in a mighty con-
flict, we scarce protect by our bulwarks the hopes of Italy :
Tiber's waters are yet steaming with our blood, and the spacious
plains are whitened by our bones. ^Yhithcr am I drifting again
and again ? what madness turns my brain ? If on the death
of Turnus I am ready to welcome these new allies, why should
I not end the strife while he lives and is safe? What will
our Eutulian kinsmen say, what the rest of Italy, if — may
Fortune forefend the omen ! — I give you up toxieath, you, a
suitor for my alliance, for my daughter's hand ? Think of
the uncertainties of Avar ; have pity on your aged sire, now
biding forlornly far away in his Ardean home ! '

These words abate not Turnus' vehemence a whit : it
frtarts up fiercer, more virulent for the healing hand. Soon
as lie can find utterance,, he thus begins : ' The care yon take
for my sake, best of fathers, lay down for my sake, I beg,
and sufl'er me to pledge my life for my honour. My hand,
too, can scatter darts and fling steel with no feeble force ; my
blows, too, fetch blood. He M-ill not have his goddess-
mother within call, to hide her craven son in an unmanly
cloud, and conceal herself by help of treacherous shadows.'

But the queen, appalled by the new hazard of the combat,
was all in tears, clinging to her fiery son-in-law with the
convulsive grasp of death : ' Turnus, by these my tears,
by any regard you cherish for Amata_ — you are now our
only hope, our only solace in our forlorn old age — the

BOOK XII. 25-93. 399

honour and power of tlic king are in your liauJs ; on you, its
one pillar, the whole liouse leans. 1 ask but this — forbear to
cross swords witli tlie Teucrians. "Whatever chance waits on
you in this unhappy combat, waits on me, too, my Turnus ;
aloncr with you I shall leave the hated li^ht, nor see in /Eneas
mj soivin-law and my conqiieror.'

As Lavinia heard her mother's voice, her glowing cheeks
were batheoin tears ; a deep blush kindled a fire, and shot
over her flushing face. .A§-whcn a man has stained Indian-^'
ivory with blood-red purple, or like a bed of lilies and roses
mixed : such hues were seen on the maiden's countenance,
lie bewildered with passion, fixes his eyes upon her : the sight
makes him burn the more for battle, and thus he addresses
Amata in brief : ' Let me not have tears nor aught so ominous,
dear mother, as my escort to the iron battle ; Turnus is not
free to postpone the call of deatk Go, Idmon, and bear the
Phrygian despot a message that will like him not : Soon as
the goddess of to-morrow's dawn shall fire the sky with the
glow of her chariot, let him not spur the Teucrians against
tlie Rutulians ; let Teucrian and Rutulian sheath their swords,
while we twain with our own life-blood decide the war. Let
Lavinia's hand be sought and won in vonder field,'

So he spoke, and rushed back Avithin doors : he calls for his
steeds, and joys to look on them snorting and neighing — the
steeds which Orithyia gave as a present to Pilumnus, to surpass
the snows in whiteness, the winds in speed. Round them stand
tlie bustling charioteers, patting their chests with hollow palms
and combing their maned necks. Xext he throws round his
shoulders his hauberk, stiff Avith scales of gold and dazzling
orichalc, and adjusts to his wear the sword, the shield, and the
cones of the crimson crest — that sword the Fire-god's own hand
had made for his father Daunus, and tempered it glowing in the
St^'gian wave. Lastly, the spear Avhich was standing in the
palace-hall, propped by a mighty column, the spoil of Auruncan

40O THE AiNEID.

Actor, he seizes foreefully, sturdy as it is, and shakes till it
quivers, crying aloud : ' Now, my good spear, that hast never
failed my call, now is the time ; once wast thou swayed by giant
Actor, now by Turnus : grant that I may lay low the emascu-
late Phrygian, strip and rend his hauberk by strength of
hand, and soil in the dust those ringlets curled with hot iron
and moist with myrrh.' So he rages, fury-driven : sparks
flash from the furnace of his countenance, lightnings dart
from his fiery eyes ; as when a bull in view of a fight raises
fearful bellowing, and calls up rage into his horns by butting
against a tree's trunk, challenges the wind with his blows,
and spurns the flying sand in prelude for the fray.

With equal fierceness /Eneas, clad in his mother's armour,
sharpens valour's edge, and lashes his heart witli wrath, joy-
ing that proffered truce should end the war. Then he calms
his comrades' fear and the grief of lulus, talking of destiny,
and sends envoys with an answer to the Latian king, to name
the conditions of peace.

Scarce had the next morrow begun to sprinkle the moun-
tain-tops with light, at the time when the sun's steeds first
come up from the deep and breathe flakes of radiance from
their upturned nostrils, when Rutulians and Teucrians were
at work, measuring out lists for combat under the ramparts of
the mighty town, with hearths in the midst, and altars of turf
for their common gods. Others were carrying fire and spring
water, begirt with aprons, vervain wreaths on their brows.
Forth moves the Ausonian army, bands with lifted javelins
issuing from the crowded gates. From yonder quarters pours
the Trojan and Tuscan force, with the arms of their several
countries, harnessed as if summoned by the War-god's bloody
fray. In the midst of either squadrons the generals flash
along, glorious in gold and purple, Mnestheus, Assaracu?'
seed, and Asilas the brave, and Messapus, tamer of horses,
the progeny of Xcptune. At a given signal each army

BOOK XII. 93-164. 401

retreats within its confines ; spears are fixed in tlie ground,
and bucklers rested at ease. Matrons in yearning eagerness,
and unarmed masses, and tottering old men, fill turret and
roof, or stand by the lofty portals.

But Juno, from the top of the mount now styled Alban —
in those days it had no name, nor glory, nor honour — was
looking in prospect on the plain, the two armies, Trojan and
Laurentine, and the Latian town. At once she addressed
Turnus' sister, a goddess herself, who presides over the pool
and the brawling stream — such dignity Jove, the king of
heaven, solemnly made hers in return for violated maiden-
hood : ' Sweet Kymph, glory of the rivers, favourite of my
heart, you know how I have preferred you to all J-,atiuin's
daughters Avho have climbed the odious bed of our great
Master and have gladly given you a seat in the sky; and now,
Juturjia, learn from me your sorrow, for which I am not to
blame. So long as Fortune seemed favourable and Fate
allowed Latium to prosper, I spread my shield over Turnus
and these your walls : now I see the youth engaged with a
destiny mightier than his own, and the day of doom and the
power of the enemy are at hand. I cannot look on the
combat, nor on the league that ushers it in. If you have the
nerve to dare aught for your brother, go on ; it is a sister's
part : periiaps the down-trodden have a better lot in store.'
Ere she had well ended, Juturna's tears sprang forth, and
thrice and again her hand smote on her lovely breast. ' Xo
time for tears,' cries Saturn's daughter : ' quick, and if any
Avay there be, snatch your brother from death : or at least
revive the Avar, and mar the treaty Avhile yet on their lips.
Remember, I Avarrant the attempt.' "With such advice she left
her wavering in purpose and staggering under the cruel bloAV.

]\[eantime the monarchs appear, the stately form of the

Latian king riding in a four-horse car, his broAvs gleaming

with a circle of tAVclve gilded rays, the cognisance of the Sun

2 G

402 THE ^NEID.

liis grandsire : Turnus is drawn by a snow-white pair, two
spears with broad iron points quivering in his hands. Then
comes father /Eneas, the parent stock of the Roman tree,
l)lazing witli his starry shield and celestial armour, and at
his side Ascanius, the second hope of mighty Rome, both
issuing from their camp : while a priest in stainless robe has
brought the young of a bristly boar and an undipped sheep
of two years old, and placed the victims by the blazing altar.
They, turning their eyes to the rising sun, offer the salted
barley, score with the steel the brows of the cattle, and make
libations from their chargers. Then thus prays good -^neas,
his sword drawn in his hand : ' Let the Sun above and the
Earth beneath witness my invocation, this very Earth for
which I have had the heart to endure so much, and the
almighty Sire, and thou, his goddess-bride, Saturn's daughter,
now — may I hope it 1 — now at last made gracious : thou,
too, glorious Mars, whose princely nod controls every battle :
Springs also and Rivers I invoke, all the majesty of the sky,
all the deities of the purple deep : if chance award the victory
to Turnus the Ausonian, reason claims that the vanquished
shall retire to Evander's town : lulus shall quit the land, nor
shall Eneas' children in after-days draw the sword again, or
threaten this realm with war. But should conquest vouch-
safe to us the smiles of the battle-field, as I rather deem, and
pray that Heaven will rather grant, I will not bid the Italians
be subject to Troy, nor ask I the crown for myself : no, let the
two great nations, one unccnquered as the other, join on equal
terms in an everlasting federation. The gods and their ritual
shall be my gift : let my good father-in-law still wield the
sword and the lawful rights of empire : the Teucrians shall
raise me a city, and Lavinia shall give it her name.' Thus
first ^neas : the Latian king follows, Avith eyes lifted to
heaven, and right hand stretched to the stars : ' I swear as
you swore, xEneas, by Land and Ocean and Lights above,

BOOK XII. 164-231. 403

Latona's twofold offspring, and two-faced Janus, the potency
of the gods below and the shrine of relentless Pluto : and let
the Father too give ear, who ratifies covenants with thunder.
My hand is on the altars ; I adjure the fires and powers that
part us : so far as rests with Italy, no length of time shall
break this bond of friendship, let things issue as they may :
no violence shall make me swerve in will, not though deluge
and chaos come again, ruining the earth into the water and
crushing down heaven into Tartarus : even as tliis sceptre ' —
for a sceptre chanced to be in his hand — 'sTiall never more
burgeon with light foliage into branch or shade, now that
once cut down in the Avoods it is orphaned of that which gave
it life, and has resigned to the axe its leaves and its sprays —
once a tree, now the workman's hand has cased it with seemly
brass, and given it to be wielded by Latium's elders,' With
words like these were they ratifying the treaty, all the nobles
looking on. Then, as the rite ordains, they cut the throats of
the hallowed victims into the fire, flay the yet breathing flesh,
and pile the altars with laden chargers.

But the Kutulians have long been tliinking the combat
unequal : their bosoms are swayed by rival emotions, all the
more, the nearer they observe the ill-matched champions.
Turnus aids the feeling by the quietness of his step and the
downcast reverential look which he turns on the altar, his Avan
cheeks, and the pallor of his youthful frame. Soon as his
sister Juturna heard such whispers spreading, and saw the
hearts of the multitude wavering to and fro, she plunges among
the ranks, taking the form of Gamers, great in ancestral dignity,
great in the name of his father's worth, and himself a valiant
warrior — plunges among the ranks, knowing well what she
would have, and scatters her sayings abroad in words like
these : ' Blush ye not, Rutulians, with souls such as yours, to
make one a sacrifice for all 1 are we not equal to our foes iu
strength or in numbers 1 See, here is their whole army, Trojan

404 THE MNEID.

and Arcadian, ay, and tliat fated band of Etruria, which seeks
Turnus' life. Thougli but half of us should engage, each
would scarce have an enemy to fight with. He, no doubt,
will rise on the wings of fame to the gods for whose altars he
gives himself to die, and will live in tlie mouths of men : we,
stripped of our country, shall be the slaves of haughty masters,
we, I say, now seated passively on the ground.' By such
words the flame is fanned more and more in those young
warrior hearts, and murmurs run from rank to rank : not
Kutulian alone, but Laurentian and Latian are changed men.
They who a short while since were hoping for their own repose
and their state's prosperity, now burn for arms, would have
the treaty undone, and pity Turnus' cruel fate. And now
Juturna gives them one thing more, even a sign from heaven,
no spell so potent to work on Italian minds and make them
dupes of the marvel. Flying through the ruddy sky, Jove's
golden bird was chasing the river fowl, a winged noisy multi-
tude, when suddenly swooping on the water he carries off in
his tyrant claws a stately swan. The Italians are all attention,
when lo ! the whole mass of birds face about with a scream,
marvellous to see, their wings darkening the air, and in dense
cloud press on their enemy, till overborne by sheer weight he
gives way, drops the booty from his talons into the river, fly-
ing aloft, and vanishes in the distant sky. Oh, then the
Rutulians welcome the omen with a shout and spread their
hands on high ; and first of all cries the augur Tolumnius.
' Here, here is the thing I have prayed for so often. I embrace
it, I own tlie hand of Heaven. FoUow me — yes, me — and
seize your weapons, my poor countrymen, whom the felon
stranger is scaring with battle, as if ye were feeble birds, and
ravaging your coasts. He too will turn to flight and sail far
away on the deep. Close your ranks with one accord, and
rally round the prince of whom the battle robs you.' He spoke,
and running forward hurls his dart full at the enemy : tho

BOOK XII. 231-303. 4^5

hurtling cornel sounds, and cuts the air on no doubtful errand.
A deafening shout follows on the act, the ranks are confused,
and men's hearts stirred with mad bewilderment. On flew
the spear, just where nine goodly brethren chanced to stand
facing it, all born of one true Tuscan mother to Gylippus tlie
Arcadian. One of these just at the waist where the quilted
belt chafes against the belly and the buckle presses the sides
— a youth of goodly form and clad in refulgent armour — it
strikes through the ribs and lays him grovelling on the yellow
sand. But his brothers, a gallant company and stung by
grief, draw their swords or seize their javelins, and charge in
headlong fury. To meet them rush the Laurentian columns :
while from their side surge forth in a flood Trojans and
Agyllans and Arcadians with inlaid harness. All are pos-
sessed by one passion, to try the issue with the steel. The altars
are stripped bare : through the whole sky drives a flickering
storm of weapons and an iron sleet comes thick : bowls and
hearths are carried away. King Latinus flies, bearing away his
gods in discomfiture, the truce unratified. Others rein the
chariot or vault on horseback, with swords ready drawn.

Messapus, all on fire to annul the treaty, spurs his horse full
on the Tuscan Aulestes, a king and wearing kingly cognisance :
he draws quickly back, and gets entangled in piteous sort with
the altars that meet him behind, falling on them head and
shoulders. Up flashes JMessapus spear in hand, and towering
on horseback brings down on him the massy beam in the
midst of his prayers, and delivers himself thus : ' He is sped :
here is a better victim for the mighty gods.' The Italians
cluster round, and strip the yet warm body. As Ebusus comes
up and aims a blow, Corynaeus meets him with a brand half-
burnt from the altar and dashes the fire in his face : his long
beard burst into a blaze and made a smell of burning hair :
the enemy presses on, grasps in his left hand the locks of the
wildered man and with the impact of his knee pins him to

4o6 THE JENEID.

eartli ; tlien buries the stark falchion in his side, Poduliriua
gives cliase to Alsus the shepherd as he rushed in the first
rank through a shower of darts, and hangs over him with
naked sword : lie, swinging back his axe, splits full in front
the foe's forehead and chin, and splashes his arms right and
left Avith the hlootL The heavy rest of iron slumber settles
down on the dying eyes, and their beams are curtained in
everlasting night.

But good iEneas, his head bare, was stretching forth his
nnarmed hand and shouting to his men : ' Whither are you
driving ? what is this sudden outburst of strife 1 Oh, curb
your passions ! the truce is stricken, and all the terms
arranged : none but I has a right to engage : give way to me
and have done with alarm : my sword shall ratify the treaty :
this sacrifice has put Turnus in my power.' While he is cry-
ing thus and uttering words like these, lo ! full at the chief
flies a hurtling arrow, none knew by what hand launched, by
what wind wafted, who graced the Rutulians so highly, chance
or deity : the glory of the proud achievement was lost, nor
was any known to boast of having wounded ^neas.

Soon as Turnus sees ^neas retiring from the battle, and
the Trojan leaders in confusion, he glows with swift access of
hope, calls for horses and armour, bounds like a conqueror
into the chariot, and takes the reins in hand. Many a heroic
frame he slaughters as he whirls along, many he tumbles and
leaves to live or die, crushes whole ranks by the onset of his
car, or plucks forth spears and hurls them at the fliers. Just
•c^ &^ storming along by Hebrus' icy flood gore-stained Mars
smites on his shield, and stirring battle lets loose his fiery
steeds : they fly over the plains faster than winds southern or
western : Thrace groans to her extremity under the beat of their
hoofs : around him circle the frowns of black-visaged Terror,
and the powers of Wrath and Treachery, liege follovrers of
the god : with like eagerness through the thickest of the

BOOK XII. 304-374. 407

battle Turnus whirls his straining horses, trampling in piteous
sort on the slaughtered foe : the flying hoof spirts gory dew,
and blood and sand are kneaded in a mass. Sthenelus he
has slain already, and Thamyris and Pholus, these hand to
hand, that from a distance : a distant death, too, has found
tlie Imbrasidse, Glaucus and Lades, trained in Lycia by
Imbrasus their sire, and by him harnessed alike, warriors
Avho could stand and fight or outride the winds. In another
part of the field Eumedes is riding through the fray, the
gallant son of ancient Dolon, with the name of his grand-
sire, the heart and hand of his sire, who of old, offering
to spy out the Danaan camp, dared to ask Achilles' chariot
as his guerdon ; far other guerdon was it with which Diomed
requited his daring, and his hopes are set on Achilles'
steeds no longer. Marking him at distance along the plain,
Turnus first sends after him a flying spear through the inter-
vening space, then stops the car and dismounts, comes on
the wretch gasping and laid low, and setting his foot on his
neck, wrests the sword from his hand, bathes it flashing deep
in his throat, and thus accompanies the blow : ' Lie there,
Trojan, and measure the Hesperian soil you came to invade :
such are their guerdons who draw their swords on me ; so build
they up their city.' Then with a spear throw he sends Asbutes
to join the dead. Chloreus and Sybaris and Dares and Ther-
silochus, Thymoetes too, thrown off by a restiff horse. A^
when the blast of Thracian Boreas roars on the deep ^gean
and drives the billows to the shore, wherever the winds push
on, the clouds scurry over the sky, so when Turnus cleaves
his path, the ranks give way, the armies turn in rout ; the
motion bears him along, and the gale which blows on the car
tosses his flickering crest. Phegeus, indignant at his over-
weening onset, meets the car and grasping the bridle wrenches
aside the foaming jaws of the impetuous steeds. "\Miile he is
dragged along clinging to the yoke, the broad spear-head reaches

4o8 THE ^NEID.

his unguarded breast, cleaves the two-plated corselet, and tastes
tlie surface of the flesli. Yet he, his shield, before him, kept
fronting and threatening the foe, and. protecting himself with
his drawn sword, when the wheel careering onward strikes
and flings him on tlie ground, and Turnus with a sweep of his
blade between the bottom of the helmet and the breastplate's
topmost rim has lopped the head and left the trunk to welter.
While Turnus thus is dealing havoc over the field, Mnestheus,
true Achates, and Ascanius have helped ^neas to the camp,
all bleeding, and staj'ing his halting steps by the help of a
spear. There he frets and struggles to pull out the broken
shaft, and calls for help the readiest way, bidding them enlarge
the wound with a broad sword, cut the weapon's lodgment to
the bottom, and send him to combat again. And now at his
side was lapis, son of lasus, dearest of mankind to Phoebus,
he to whom the god in his passionate fondness would fain
have given his own function, his own hand's cunning, the
au.^ur's insight, the lyre, the weapons of archery ; but he,
wishing to lengthen out the span of his l^e^did sire, chose
rather to know the virtue of simples and the laws of the heal-
ing art, and to practise in silence an unambitious craft. There
stood .5^neas, fretting impatiently, propped on his massy spear,
with a warrior concourse about him, and lulus all in tears,
yet himself unmoved by their sorrow. The aged leech, his
garments swathed round him in Paeon's fashion, is plying
busily the healing hand and Phoebus' sovereign remedies all to
no end, all to no end pulling at the dart and griping the steel
with the pincer. No Fortune guides the course of skill, no
patron Phoebus lends his aid ; and meanwhile the fierce alarms
of the field grow louder and louder, and the mischief is nearer
at hand. They see dust-clouds propping the sky, the horse-
men gallop in, darts fall thick in the midst of the camp, and
heavenward mounts the cruel din of warriors battling or falling
in the stern affray ; — when, lo ! Venus, struck to the heart by

BOOK XII. 375-447. 409

hor son's undeserved suffering, Avitli a mother's care plucks
dittany from Cretan Ida, a plant with downy leaves and a
purple flower : wild goats know that simple well, if the flying
arrow should lodge in tlieir flesh. Veiled by a dim cloud, the
goddess brings it down ; with it she impregnates the spring
water gleaming in the caldron, imparting unseen powers, and
sprinkles ambrosia's healthful juice and fragrant panacea. The
old man rinsed tlie wound with the water so transformed, all
unwitting, and in a moment all pain was fled from the frame,
and the blood was stanched in the wound. The arrow obeys
tlie hand, and falls unforced, and strength is restored as before.
' Quick ! give the warrior his arms ! why so tardy 1 ' cries lapis,
himself the first to stir up the martial spirit. * Ko human
aid has done this, no power of leech-craft ; it is not my hand,
il'^neas, that restores you ; a mightier power than man's is at
work, sending you back to mightier deeds.' The chief, greedy
for the fight, has cased his legs in gold, chafing at delay and
brandishing his spear. Soon as the shield is fitted to his side,
the cuirass to his back, he clasps Ascanius to his mailed breast,
and kissing his lips through the helmet addresses him thus :
' Learn valour from me, my son, and genuine hardihood,
success from others. To-day it is my hand that shall shield
you in war and lead you through the walks of honour ; be it
your care, Avhen your age has ripened into manhood, to bear
the past in mind, seek patterns among those of your own
blood, and be stirxed to action by ^neas your sire and Hector
your uncle.'

So having said, he passed towering through the gate, a huge
spear quivering in his hand : Antheus and Mnestheus close
their ranks and rush forth, and the whole multitude streams
from the empty camp. The field is clouded by blinding dust,
and earth throbs and shudders with the tramp of feet. Turnus
saAV them coming towards him from their battlements, tlio
Ausonians saw, and a cold shudder ran tlirough their vitals :

410 THE ^NEID.

first before all the Latians Juturna heard and knew the sound
and shrank back in terror. As a storm-cloud bursting through
the sky sweeps down to earth along the main : hapless hus-
bandmen know it ere it comes, and shudder at heart ; yes, it
will bring havoc to their trees, devastation to their crops, will
lay all low far and wide ; the winds fly before it and waft
the sound to the shore : with as strong a rush the Ehoeteian
chief sweeps his army full on the foe ; they close in firm
masses and form severally at his side. Thymbrseus' sword
cuts down miglity Osiris, Mnestheus slays Archetius, Achates
Epulo, and Gyas Ufens ; falls too the augur Tolumnius, the
first to fling his javelin at the enemy. The din mounts to
the sky, and the Rutulians routed in turn fly through the
plains in a whirlwind of dust. The hero himself neither
stoops to slaughter the flying nor encounter such as would
fain meet him foot to foot, weapon in hand : Turnus alone
he tracks winding through the thick darkness, him alone he
challenges to combat. The terror struck Juturna's manly
mind : she plucks from his seat Metiscus, Turnus' charioteer,
as he drives the horses, and leaves him fallen at distance
behind the car : herself takes his place and handles the flow-
ing rein, assuming all that ]\Ietiscus had, voice and person
and armour. Like a black swallow that flies through the
liouse of some wealthy man and traverses the lofty hall, in
quest of scraps of food for her twittering nestlings ; now
she is heard in the empty cloisters, now about the water-
tanks ; so drives Juturna through the thick of the foe, and
flies on rapid wheel from spot to spot, now here, now there
she gives a glimpse of her victorious brother, yet never lets
him stop and fight, but whirls far away in the distance.
^^Lneas for his part winds through sinuous paths in hope
to meet him, tracks his steps, and shouts to him aloud across
the weltering ranks. Oft as he spies out the foe and tries
by running to match the horses' winged sjoeed, each time

BOOK XII. 448-519. 411

Juturna wheels the car aside. "What can he do ? he tosses
in aimless ebb and flow, thoughts distracting his mind this
way and that : — when lo ! ^Messapus, with sudden movement,
happening to carry two limber spear-shafts tipped with steel,
levels one at liim and flings it true to its mark. ^Eneas
stopped and gathered his arms about him, sinking on his knee ;
yet the fierce spear took the top of the helmet and struck the
crest from tlie cone. Then at last his wrath mounts high ;
and under the duresse of treachery, as he sees the steeds and
chariot whirling away from him, after many an appeal to Jove
and the altars of the violated league, he falls on the ranks
before him, and fanned to dreadful vengeance by the "War-
god's breath, lets loose a carnage cruel and unsparing, and
flings the reins on the neck of his passion.

And now what god will tell me all those horrors and relate
for me in verse the several scenes of slaughter, the deaths of
the leaders whom Turnus here, the Trojan hero there, is
chasing over the plain? Was it thy will, great Jove, that
nations destined in time to come to everlasting amity should
first clash in such dread turmoil? iEneas confronted by
Rutulian Sucro (that combat first brought the Trojan onset to
a stand) after brief delay catches him on tlie side and drives
his stubborn sword death's nearest way through the ribs that
fenie^ the bosom. Turnus in foot-encounter slays Amycus,
whose horse had thrown him, and his brother Diores, striking
one with the spear ere he came up, the other with the sword-
blade, lops the heads of both, hangs them from his car, and
carries tliem dripping with blood. That sends down Talos to
death and Tanais and brave Cethegus, those at one onslaught,
and hapless Onytes, of the house of Echion, brought forth by
Peridia : that kills the brethren who came from Apollo's land
of Lycia, and young Menoetes the Arcadian, who shrunk from
war in vain ; he plied his craft and lived in poverty by the
fisliv waters of Lerna, a stranger to the halls of the great ;

412 THE .ENEID.

ami his father tilled land for Lire. Like tAVo^rgs launclieJ
from different quarters on a dry forest with bushes of crack-
ling bay, or as when two foaming rivers pouring from lofty
heights crash along and run towards the ocean, each plough-
ing his own wild channel : with no less fury rush through the
fight ^neas and Turnus both : now, now the wrath is boiling
within them : their unconquered bosoms swell to bursting :
they throw their whole force on the wounds they deal. This
with the whirl and the blow of a mighty rock dashes Mur-
ranus headlong from his car to the ground, Murranus who had
ever on his tongue the ancient names of sires and grand-
sires and a lineage stretching -through the series of Latium's
kings : the wheels throw forward the fallen man under the
reins and yoke, and he is crushed by the quick hoof-beat of
the steeds that mind not their lord. That meets Hyllus as
he rushed on in vehement fury, and hurls a javelin at his
gold-bound brows ; the spear pierced the helmet and stood
fixed in the brain. ISTor did your prowess, Cretheus, bravest
of Greeks, deliver you from Turnus, nor did the gods Cupencus
Avorshipped shield him from the onset of ^Eneas : his bosom
met the steel, and the check of the brazen buckler stood the
wretch in small stead. You, too, great ^olus, the Laurentian
plains looked on in death, spreading your frame abroad over
their surface : fallen are you, whom the Argive bands could
never overthrow, nor Achilles the destroyer of Priam's realm :
here was your fatal goal : a princely home under Ida's shade :
at Lyrnesus a princely hope, in Laurentian soil a sepulchre.
The two armies are in hot conflict : all the Latians, all the
sons of Dardanus, Mnestheus, and keen Serestus, and Messapus
tamer of the steed, and brave Asilas, the Tuscan band, and
Evander's Arcad cavalry, each man for himself straining every
nerve : no stint, no stay ; they strive with giant tension.

And now ^neas had a thought inspired by his beauteous
mother, to march to the walls, throw his force rapidly on the

BOOK XII. 520-5S8. 413

town, and stun the Latians •\vitli a sudden blow. Trackin;::
Turnus through the ranks he swept his eyes round and round,
and beholds the city enjoying respite from all that furious
Avar, and lying in unchallenged repose. At once his mind is
fired with the vison of a grander battle : ISfnestheus he sum-
mons and Sergestus and brave Serestus, the first in command,
and mounts an eminence round which the rest of the Teucrian
army gathers in close ranks, not laying shield or dart aside.
Standing on the tall mound, he thus bespeaks them : ' Let
nothing stay my orders ; the hand of Jove is here ; nor let
any move slower because the enterprise is sudden. The,
town, the cause of the war, the royal home of the Latian
king, unless they submit the yoke and confess themselves
vanquished, I will overthrow this day, and lay its smoking
turrets level with the ground. "What? am I to wait till
Turnus choose to bide the combat, and once conquered, meet
me a second time 1 This, my men, is the Avell-spring, this the
head and front of the monstrous war. Bring torches with
speed, and reclaim the treaty fire in hand.' lie said, and all
with emulous spirit of union close their ranks and stream
to the walls in compact mass. Scaling ladders and brands
are produced suddenly and in a moment. Some run to the
several gates and slay those stationed there : some hurl the
steel and overshadow the sky with javelins. ^Eneas himself
among the foremost lifts up his hand under the city wall,
loudly upbraids the king, and calls the gods to witness
that he is once more forced into battle, the Italians twice
his foes, the second treaty broken like the first. Strife
arises among the wildered citizens : some are for throwing
open the town and unbarring the gates to the I)ardans :
nay, they even drag the monarch to the ramparts : others
draw the sword and prepare to guard the walls : as when^a
countryman has tracked out bees concealed in a "cavernous
rock and filled their hiding-place with pungent smoke, they ia

4U THE mNEID.

alarm for the common wealth flit about their waxen realm anti
stir themselves to wrath by vehement buzzing: the murky
smell winds from chamber to chamber : a dull blind noise
fills the cavern : vapours ascend into the void of air.

Yet another stroke fell on Latium's wearied sons, shaking
Avith its agony the city to her foundations. When the queen
from her palace saw the enemy draw near, the walls assailed,
flames flying roofward, the Eutulian army, the soldiers of
Turnus nowhere in sight, she deemed, poor wretch, her warrior
slain in the combat, and maddened with the access of grief,
cries aloud that she alone is the guilty cause, the fountainhead
of all this evil ; and flinging out wild words in the fury of
her frenzied anguish, rends with desperate hand her purple
raiment, and fastens from a lofty beam the noose of hideous
death. Soon as Latium's wretched dames knew the blow
that had fallen, her daughter Lavinia is first to rend yellow
hair and roseate cheek, and the rest about her ran as wildly :
the palace re-echoes their wail. The miserable story spreads
through the town : every heart sinks : there goes the old
king with garments rent, all confounded by his consort's
death and his city's ruin : he soils his hoary locks with
showers of unseemly dust, and oft and oft upbraids himself
that he embraced not sooner ^neas the Dardan nor took him
for son-in-law of his own free will

Turnus, meantime, is plying the war far away on the plain,
following here and there a straggler with abated zeal, himself
and his steeds alike less buoyant. The air wafted to him the
confused din, inspiring unknown terror, and on his quickened
ears smote the sound of the city's turmoil and the noise not
of joy. ' Alas ! what is this mighty agony that shakes the
walls 1 what these loud shouts pouring from this quarter and
that ? ' So he cries, and drawing his bridle halts bewildered.
His sister, just as she stood in guise of Metiscus the driver,
guiding car, horse, and reins, thus meets his question : ' Pro-

BOOK XII. 5S9-660. 415

ce^'l Ave still, Turnus, to chase the Trojans, uhere victory's
dawn shows us the Avay : others there are Avhose hands can
guard the city : iEneas bears down on the Italians and stirs
up the battle ; let us send havoc as cruel among his Teucrians :
so shall your slain be as many and your martial fame as high,'
Turnus answered : * Sister, I both knew you long since, when
at first you artfully disturbed the truce and flung yourself into
our quarrel, and now you vainly hide the goddess from my
eyes. I>ut tell me by wliose will you are sent from Olympus
to cope with toils like this ? Is it that you may look on the
cruel end of your hapless brother 1 For what can I do 1 what
chance is there left to give me hope of safety ? With my own
eyes I saw Murranus die, his giant frame laid low by a giant
wound: he called me by name, he, than whom I had no dearer
friend. Dead, too, is ill-starred Ufens, all because he would not
see me disgraced : his body and his arms are the Teucrians'
prize. Am I to let the nation's homes be razed to the ground,
the one drop that was wanting to the cup, and not rather with
my own right hand give Drances' words the lie ? Shall I
turn my back ? shall this laud see Turnus flying 1 is death
after all so bitter? Be gracious to me, gentle powers of tho
grave, since the gods above are against me ! Yes, I will come
down to you a stainless spirit, guiltless of that base charge,
worthy in all my acts of my great forefathers.'

Scarce had ho spoken, Avhen lo ! there flies through the
midst of the foe, on a foaming steed, Saces, Avith an arrow
full in his face : up he spurs, imploring Turnus by name :
' Turnus, our last hope is in you : have compassion on your
army. iEneas thunders with sword and spear, and threatens
that he will level in dust and give to destruction the Italians'
topmost battlements : even now brands are flying to the roofs.
Every Latian face, every eye turns to you : the king himself
mutters in doubt whom to call his son-in-law, to whose alliance
to incline. Nay, more, your fastest friend the queen is dead

41 6 THE TEN E ID.

Ly lier own liaud, scared and driven out of life. Only Mo8-
sapus and keen Atinas are at the gates to npliold our forces.
About them are closed ranks, and an iron harvest of naked
blades : you are rolling your car over a field from which war has
ebbed.' Turnus stood still with silent dull regard, wildered by
the thoughts that crowd on his mind : deep shame, grief and
madness, frenzy-goaded passion and conscious wrath all surging
at once. Soon as the shadows parted and light came back to
his intelligence, he darted his blazing eyes cityward with rest-
less vehemence, and looked back from his car to the wide-
stretching town. Lo ! there was a cone of fire spreading from
story to story and flaring to heaven : the flame was devouring
the turret which he had built himself of planks welded together,
put wheels beneath it, and furnished it with lofty bridges.
' Fate is too strong for me, sister, too strong : hold me back no
longer : we needs must follow where Heaven and cruel Fortune
are calling us. Yes, I will meet ^neas : I will endure the full
bitterness of death : no more, my love, shall you see me dis-
graced: sufi"er me first to have my hour of madness.' He said,
and in a moment leapt to the ground, rushes on through foes,
through javelins, leaves his sister to her sorrow, and dashes at
full speed through the intervening ranks. Even as from a
mountain's top down comes a rock headlong, torn olf by'the wind,
or washed down by vehement rain, or loosened by the lapse
of creeping years : down the steep it crashes with giant impulse,
that reckless stone, bounding over the ground and rolling along
with it trees, herds, and men : so^dashing the ranks apart, rushes
Turnus to the city walls, where the earth is wet with plashy blood,
and the gale hurtles with spears : he beckons with his hand, and
cries with a mighty voice : 'Have done, ye Rutulians ! ye Latians.
hold back your darts ! whatever Fortune brings she brings to
me : 'tis juster far that I in your stead should singly expiate
the treaty's breach and try the issue of the steel.' All at the
word part from the midst, and leave him a clear space.

BOOK XII. 660-733. 417

Eut father ^neas, hearing Turnus' name, quits his hold
on the walls and the battlements that crown them, flings
delay to the winds and breaks oif the work of war, steps high
in triamph, and makes his arms peal dread thunder: vast
as Athos, vast as Eryx, vast as father Apennine himself,
when he roars with his quivering holms and lifts his snowy
crest exultingly to the sky. All turn their eyes with eager
contention. Rutuliiins, Trojans, and Italians, those alike
who were manning the towers and those whos;e battering-
rams were assailing the foundations. All unbrace their
armour. Latinus himself stands amazed to see two men so
mighty, born in climes so distant each from eacli, thus met
together to try the steel's issue. At once, when a space is
cleared on the plain, first hurling their spears, they advance
with swift onset, and dash into the combat with shield and
ringing harness. Earth groans beneath them : their swords
hail blow on blow : chance and valour mingle pell-mell. As .3
^vhen on mighty Sila or Taburnus' summit twaubuUs. lowering
their brows for combat, engage fiercely : the herdsmen retreat
in dread : the cattle all stand dumb with terror, the heifer^?
wait in suspense who is to be the monarch of the woodland,
whom the herds are to follow henceforth : they each in turn
give furious blows, push and lodge their horns, and bathe neck
and shoulders with streams of blood : the sound makes the
forest bellow again : with no less fury ^neas the Trojan, and
the Daunian chief clash shield on shield : the enormous din
fills the firmament. Jupiter himself holds aloft his scales
poised and level, and lays therein the destinies of the two, to
see whom the struggle dooms, and whose the Aveight that death
bears down. Forth darts Turnus, deeming it safe, rises with
his whole frame on the uplifted sword, and strikes. Trojans
and eager Latians shout aloud : both armies gaze expectant.
Lut the faitlJess sword snaps in twain and fails its fiery lord
midway in the stroke, unless flight should come to his aid. Olf

2 D

4i8 THE MNEID.

he flies swifter than the winil, seeing an unknown hilt in Iiig
defenceless hand. Men say that in his headlong haste, when
first he was mounting the car harnessed for battle, he left behind
liis father's falchion and snatched up tlie steel of Metiscus,
his charioteer : so long as the Tencrians fled straggling before
him, the weapon did good service ; soon as it came to the
divine Vulcanian armour, the mortal blade, like brittle ice,
flew asunder at the stroke : the fragments sparkle on the yellow
sand. So now in his distraction Turnus flies here and there
over the plain, weaving vague circles in this place and in
that : for the Trojans have closed in circle about him, and here
is a spreading marsh, there lofty ramparts to bar the way.

Kor is ^neas wanting, though at times the arrow wound
slackens his knees and robs them of their power to run : no,
he follows on, and presses upon the flier foot for foot : as
when a hound has got a stag pent in by a river, or hedged
about by the terror of crimson plumage, and chases him run-
ning and barking : the stag, frighted by the snare and the
steep bank, doubles a thousand times : the keen Umbrian
clings open-mouthed to his skirts, all but seizes him, and as
though in act to seize, snaps his teeth, and is baffled to find
nothing in their gripe. Then, if ever, uprises a shout, echo-
ing along bank and marsh, and heaven rings again with
the noise. Turnus, even as he flies, calls fiercely on the
Eutulians, addressing Vty name, and clamours for his well-
known sword, ^neas, for his part, threatens death and instant
destruction, should any come near, and terrifies his trembling
foes, swearing that ho will raze their city to the ground, and
presses on in spite of his wound. Five times they circle
round, five times they retrace the circle : for no trivial prize
is at stake, no guerdon of a game : the contest is for Turnus'
life, for his very heart's blood. It chanced that there had
stood there a wild olive with its bitter leaves, sacred to Faunus,
a tree in old days reverenced by seamen, where when saved

BOOK XII. 733-779. 419

from ocean tliey used to fasten their offerings to the Laureu-
tian god and hang up their votive garments : but the unrespect-
ing Trojans had lately lopped the hallowed trunk, that the
lists might he clear for combat. Tliere was lodged xEneas'
spear : thither its force had carried it, and was now holding
it fast in the unyielding root. The Dardun chief bent over
it, fain to wrench forth tlie steel that his weapon may catch
whom his foot cannot overtake. Then cried Turnus in the
moment of frenzied agony : ' Have mercy, I conjure thee,
good Faunus, and thou, most gracious earth, liold fast the
steel if I liave ever reverenced your sanctities, which /Eneas'
crew for their part have caused battle to desecrate.' He said,
nor were his vows unanswered by heavenly aid. Hard as
lie struggled, long as he lingered over tlie stubborn stock, by
no force could iEneas make tlie wood unclose its fangs.
AVhile he strains with keen insistence, the Daunian goddess,
resuming the guise of charioteer Metiscus, runs forward
and restores to her brother his sworel Then Venus, resent-
ing the freedom taken by the presumptuous Nymph, came nigh,
and plucks the weapon from the depth of the root. And now
towering high, with restored weapons and recruited force, this in
strong reliance on his sword, that fiercely waving his spear tall as
he, the two stand front to front in the breath-draining conflict
of war.

Meanwhile the king of almighty Olympus accosts Juno, as
from a golden cloud she gazes on the battle : ' Where is this
to end, fair spouse ? what last stroke have you in store ? you
know yourself, by your own confession, that ^neas has his
place assured in heaven among Italia's native gods, that destiny
is making him a ladder to the stars. What plan you now 1
what hope keeps you seated on those chilly clouds? was it
right that mortal wound should harm a god, or that Turnus —
for what power could Juturna have apart from you 1 — should
receive back his lost sword and the vanquished should feel

420 THE ALNEID.

new forces 1 At length have done, and let my praj'ers bow
your will. Let tliis mighty sorrow cease to devour you in
silence : let me hear sounds of sullen disquiet less often
from your lovely lips. The barrier has been reached. To
toss the Trojans over land and sea, to kindle an unhallowed
war, to plunge a home in mourning, to blend a dirge with
the bridal song, this it has been yours to do : all further
action I forbid.' So spake Jiipiter: and so in return Saturn's
daughter with downcast look : ' Even because I knew, great
Jove, that such was your pleasure, have I withdrawn
against my will from Turnus and from earth : else you would
not see me now in the solitude of my airy throne, exposed
to all that comes, meet or unmeet : armed with firebrands,
I should stand in the very line of battle, and force the
Teucrians into the hands of their foes. As for Juturna, I
counselled her, I own, to succour her wretched brother, and
warranted an unusual venture where life was at stake : but
nought was said of aiming the shaft or bending the bow : I
swear by the inexpiable fountain-head of Styx, the one sanc-
tion that binds us powers above. And now I yield indeed,
/ rand quit this odious struggle. Yet there is a boon I would
ask, a boon which destiny forefends not. I ask it for the
sake of Latium, for the dignity of your own people : when
at last peace shall be ratified with a happy bridal, for happy
let it be : when bonds of treaty shall be knit at last, let it
not be tliy will that the native Latians should change their
ancient name, become Trojans or take the Teucrian style :
let not them alter their langua<^'e or their garb. Let there
be Latium still : let there be centuries of Alban kings : let
there be a Roman stock, strong with the strength of Italian
manhood : but let Troy be fallen as she is, name and nation
j_alike.' The Father of men and nature answered with a
smile : ' Ay, you are Jove's own sister, the other branch of
Saturn's line ; such billows of passion surge in your bosom !

BOOK XII. 800-806. 421

but come, let this ineflfectual frenzy give way : I grant your
^vish, and submit myself in willing obedience. The Auso-
nians shall keep their native tongue, their native customs :
the name shall remain as it is : the Teucrians shall merge in
tlio nation they join — that and no more : their rites and
worship shall be my gift : all shall be Latians and speak the
Latian tongue. The race that shall arise from this admixture
of Ausonian blood shall transcend in piety earth and heaven
itself, nor shall any nation pay you such honours as they.'
Juno nodded assent, and turned her sullenness to pleasure ;
meanwhile she departs from the sky, and quits the cloud
where she sat.

This done, the sire meditates a further resolve, and pre-
pares to part Juturna from her brother's side. There are two
fiends known as the Furies, whom with Tartarean Megsera
dismal Night brought forth at one and the same birth, wreath-
ing them alike with coiling serpents, and equipping them
with wings that fan the air. They are seen beside Jove's
throne, at the threshold of his angry sovereignty, goad-
ing frail mortality with stings of terror, oft as the monarch
of the gods girds himself to send forth disease and frightful
death, or ajipals guilty towns with war. One of these Jove
sped with haste from heaven's summit, and bade her confront
Juturna in token of his will. Forth she flies, borne earthward
on the blast of a whirlwind. Swift as the arrow from the
string cleaves the cloud, sent forth by Parthian — Parthian or
Cydonian — tipped with fell poison's gall, the dealer of a wound
incurable, and skims the flying vapours hurtling and unfore-
seen, gii went the Daughter of Night and made her way to
earth. Soon as she sees the forces of Troy and the army of
Turnus, she huddles herself suddenly into the shape of a puny
bird, which oft on tombstone or lonely roof sitting by night
screams restlessly through the gloom ; in this disguise the fiend
again and again flies flapping in Turnus' face, and beats with

422 THE ALNEID.

her wings on liis shielcL A strange chilly terror unknits his
frame, his hair stands shudderingly erect, and his utterance
cleaves to his jaws. But when Juturna knew from far the
rustling of those Fury pinions, she rends, hapless maid, her dis-
hevelled tresses, marring, in all a sister's agony, her face with
her nails, her breast with her clenched hands : ' What now,
my Turnus, can your sister avail ? what more remains for an
obdurate wretch like me ? by what expedient can I lengthen
your span ? can I face a portent like this ? At last, at last I
quit the field. Cease to appal my fluttering soul, ye birds of
ill omen : I know the flapping of your wings and its deathful
noise ; nor fail I to read great Jove's tyrannic will. Is this
liis recompense for lost virginity 1 why gave he me life to last
for ever 1 why was the law of death annulled ? else might I
end this moment the tale of my sorrows, and travel to the
shades hand in hand with my poor brother. Can immor-
tality, can aught that I have to boast give me joy without him ?
Oh, that earth would but yawn deep enough, and send me
down, goddess though I be, to the powers of the grave ! ' So
saying, she shrouded her head in her azure robe, with many a
groan, and vanished beneath the river of her deity.

^neas presses on, front to front, 'shaking his massy, tree-
like spear, and thus speaks in the fierceness of his spirit :
' Wliat is to be the next delay 1 why does Turnus still hang
back ? ours is no contest of speed, but of stern soldiership,
hand to hand. Take all disguises you can : muster all your
powers of courage or of skill : mount on wing, if you list, to
the stars aloft, or hide in the cavernous depth of earth.'
Shaking his head, he replied : ' I quail not at your fiery words,
insulting foe : it is Heaven that makes me quail, and Jove
ray enemy.' No more he spoke : but, sweeping his eyes
round, espies a huge stone, a stone ancient and huge, which
chanced to be lying on the plain, set as some field's boundary,
to forefend disputes of ownership : scarce could twelve picked

BOOK XII. 866-932. 423

men lift it on tlieir shoulders, such puny frames as earth pro-
duces now-a-daj^s : he caught it up with hurried grasp and
thing it at his foe, rising as he threw, and running rapidly, as
liero might. And yet all the wliile he knows not that he is
running or moving, lifting up or stirring the enormous stone :
his knees totter under him, and his blood chills and freezes :
and so the mass from tlie warrior s hand, whirled through the
empty void, passed not through all the space between nor
carried home the blow. Even as in dreams, at night, when
heavy slumber has weighed down the eyes, we seem vainly
wishing to make eager progress forward and midway in the
effort fail helplessly : our tongue has no power, our Avonted
strength stands not our frames in stead, nor do words or
utterance come at our call : so it is with Turnus : whatever
means liis valour tries, the fell fiend bars them of their issue.
And now confused images whirl through his brain : he looks
to liis Rutulians and to the city, and falters with dread, and
(juails at the threatening sjiear : how to escape he knows not,
nor how to front tlic foe, nor sees he anywhere his car or the
sister who drives it

Full in that shrinking face ^Eneas shakes his fatal weapon,
taking aim with his eye, and with an effort of his whole
frame hurls it fortli. Never stone flung from engine of siecre
roars so loud, never peal so rending follows the thunder-
bolt. On flies the spear like dark whirlwind with fell de-
struction on its wing, pierces the edge of the corselet, and the
outermost circle of the seven-fold shield, and with a rush
cleaves through the tliigh. Down with his knee doubled
under him comes Turnus to earth, all his length prostrated
by the blow. Up start the Eutulians, groaning as one man :
the Avhole mountain round rebellows, and the depths of the
forest send back the sound far and wide. He in lowly suppli-
ance lifts up eye and entreating hand : * It is my due,' he cries,
*and T ask not to be spared it : take what fortune gives you.

424 THE .<ENEID.

Yet, if you can feel for a parent's misery — your father, Ancliii-of^,
was once in like plight — have mercy on Daunus' hoary hairs,
and let me, or if you choose my breathless body, be restored
to my kin. You are conqueror : the Ausonians have seen my
conquered hands outstretched : the royal bride is yours : let
hatred be pressed no further.' ^Eneas stood still, a fiery
Avarrior, his eyes rolling, and checked his hand : and those
suppliant words were working more and more on his faltering
purpose, when, alas ! the ill-starred belt was seen high on the
shoulder, and light flashed from the well known studs — the
belt of young Pallas, whom Turnus conquered and struck
down to earth, and bore on his breast the badge of triumphant
enmity. Soon as his eyes caught the spoil and drank in the
recollection of that cruel grief, kindled into madness and
terrible in his wrath : * "What, with my friend's trophies upon
you, would you escape my hand 1 It is Pallas, Pallas, who
with this blow makes you his victim, and gluts his vengeance
with your accursed blood.' "With these words, fierce as flame,
he plunged the steel into the breast that lay before him. That
other's frame grows chill and motionless, and the soul, resent-
ing its lot, flies groaningly to the shades.

1

THE EKI).

PRINTED IIY BALLANTYNE, HANSON ANO CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

?A Vergil ius Maro, Publius
6S07 Poems New ed.
A1C6
1390

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